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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.

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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: clip · mine · hand · charge · prune · capital · patient · dip

  1. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  4. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  7. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  8. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  9. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  10. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  11. The tickets are free of ________________.
  12. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  13. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  14. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  15. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  18. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  24. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — a video
  2. hand — help
  3. mine — belonging to me
  4. dip — a sauce
  5. clip — for paper
  6. patient — a sick person
  7. patient — calm and waiting
  8. prune — the fruit
  9. capital — a city
  10. prune — to trim
  11. charge — a price
  12. hand — part of the body
  13. charge — in control
  14. dip — to dunk
  15. charge — electricity
  16. mine — for digging
  17. patient — a sick person
  18. dip — to sink
  19. hand — in cards
  20. capital — money
  21. prune — to trim
  22. clip — to cut
  23. capital — a big letter
  24. mine — an explosive

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