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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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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: nail · march · clip · bass · kid · capital · drill · straw

  1. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  2. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  3. The ________________ went through the wall.
  4. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  16. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  19. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  20. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  23. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  24. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — the fish
  2. bass — low music
  3. nail — for a hammer
  4. drill — a practice
  5. capital — money
  6. march — the month
  7. capital — a city
  8. drill — the tool
  9. clip — to cut
  10. straw — a straw man
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. clip — for paper
  13. nail — for a hammer
  14. kid — to tease
  15. nail — on a finger
  16. march — music
  17. clip — a video
  18. march — the month
  19. capital — a big letter
  20. straw — dry grass
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. bass — the instrument
  23. drill — army training
  24. kid — child

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