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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 124 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.

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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: clip · kid · board · object · capital · fork · press · last

  1. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  9. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  10. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  13. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  16. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  17. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  18. Did you ________________ the button?
  19. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  20. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  21. False peace will not ________________.
  22. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  23. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  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. clip — to cut
  2. last — final
  3. kid — to tease
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. clip — for paper
  6. board — a committee
  7. capital — money
  8. object — a thing
  9. board — to get on
  10. object — an aim
  11. kid — child
  12. fork — in a road
  13. press — a publisher
  14. capital — a city
  15. last — finally
  16. board — a flat piece
  17. object — to protest
  18. press — to push
  19. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  20. fork — a garden tool
  21. last — to go on
  22. press — newspapers
  23. fork — to eat with
  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