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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: kick · pop · kid · capital · stock · clip · wax · fall

  1. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  6. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. We're almost out of ________________.
  9. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  10. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  13. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  14. The ________________ market has crashed.
  15. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  16. You don't need to ________________ round.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  19. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.

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

Answer key

  1. pop — music
  2. capital — money
  3. stock — a soup base
  4. kid — child
  5. fall — to drop
  6. fall — the season
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. pop — soda
  9. kick — with a leg
  10. stock — goods
  11. clip — to cut
  12. capital — a city
  13. kick — in football
  14. stock — shares
  15. wax — to grow
  16. pop — to visit
  17. clip — for paper
  18. kick — a thrill
  19. fall — to drop
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. kid — to tease
  22. wax — in the ear
  23. clip — a video
  24. wax — for sculpting

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