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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: clip · sharp · bay · wind · field · capital · lash · last

  1. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  7. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  8. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  9. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  10. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  13. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  14. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  18. My mare is ________________ in color.
  19. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  20. It's one o'clock ________________.
  21. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  22. False peace will not ________________.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. wind — moving air
  3. bay — a part of the sea
  4. field — farmland
  5. field — for sport
  6. lash — to lash out
  7. last — final
  8. capital — a city
  9. lash — an eyelash
  10. wind — to turn a key
  11. field — a subject
  12. sharp — with an edge
  13. capital — money
  14. lash — a whip stroke
  15. clip — for paper
  16. clip — a video
  17. sharp — clever
  18. bay — a horse colour
  19. bay — to keep at bay
  20. sharp — exactly
  21. last — finally
  22. last — to go on
  23. wind — moving air
  24. capital — a big letter

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