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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 120 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

Words on the sheet
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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: lie · clip · mate · capital · perch · cold · stock · file

  1. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  5. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  6. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. The ________________ market has crashed.
  9. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  10. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  13. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  16. Have you found your soul ________________?
  17. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. stock — a soup base
  2. cold — not warm
  3. file — a tool
  4. perch — for a bird
  5. mate — to breed
  6. lie — to recline
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. stock — shares
  9. capital — a city
  10. stock — goods
  11. file — a line of people
  12. perch — the fish
  13. lie — an untruth
  14. cold — an illness
  15. perch — for a bird
  16. mate — a partner
  17. lie — an untruth
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. clip — for paper
  20. file — a document
  21. clip — to cut
  22. mate — a friend
  23. capital — money
  24. clip — a video

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com