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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: march · clip · bat · chest · racket · bark · capital · cue

  1. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  9. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  10. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  14. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  19. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  20. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  24. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. racket — for tennis
  3. capital — money
  4. clip — for paper
  5. cue — for pool
  6. chest — of your body
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. march — music
  9. chest — a box
  10. bark — to shout
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. clip — a video
  13. cue — a hint
  14. capital — a big letter
  15. chest — of your body
  16. racket — a loud noise
  17. bat — the animal
  18. cue — a signal
  19. racket — for tennis
  20. bark — a dog's sound
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. capital — a city
  23. march — the month
  24. march — the month

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