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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: mine · spell · capital · cold · mark · clip · pop · suit

  1. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. When will it ________________ you to start?
  3. Positive actions can inspire others to follow ________________.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  6. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  7. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  10. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  11. We're almost out of ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. The cuffs of his ________________ jacket are badly frayed.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  16. How do you ________________ your surname?
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  20. You don't need to ________________ round.
  21. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. suit — to fit
  3. suit — in cards
  4. clip — a video
  5. spell — a short time
  6. mine — for digging
  7. mark — a grade
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. spell — magic
  10. mark — a trace
  11. pop — soda
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. suit — clothes
  14. clip — for paper
  15. mine — belonging to me
  16. spell — letters
  17. cold — not warm
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. pop — music
  20. pop — to visit
  21. mark — to pay attention
  22. cold — an illness
  23. capital — a city
  24. capital — money

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