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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: trunk · game · chest · race · clip · club · capital · squash

  1. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  12. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  13. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  14. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  19. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  20. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  23. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — a video
  2. chest — of your body
  3. trunk — of a tree
  4. chest — of your body
  5. squash — the vegetable
  6. clip — for paper
  7. trunk — of an elephant
  8. game — a match
  9. club — for golf
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. club — for dancing
  12. game — wild animals
  13. race — a contest
  14. squash — the sport
  15. chest — a box
  16. game — a kind of play
  17. clip — to cut
  18. race — humankind
  19. trunk — of a car
  20. race — the arms race
  21. capital — money
  22. squash — to crush
  23. club — a group
  24. capital — a city

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