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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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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: rest · nail · perch · cold · lie · capital · clip · chair

  1. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  2. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  3. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  4. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  5. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  6. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  9. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  14. The ________________ went through the wall.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  18. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  23. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  24. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rest — a break
  2. nail — on a finger
  3. rest — what's left
  4. chair — a professorship
  5. chair — to sit on
  6. lie — an untruth
  7. clip — a video
  8. nail — for a hammer
  9. perch — the fish
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. clip — for paper
  12. cold — not warm
  13. lie — to recline
  14. nail — for a hammer
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. cold — an illness
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. lie — an untruth
  19. capital — money
  20. capital — a city
  21. clip — to cut
  22. rest — what's left
  23. chair — a leader
  24. perch — for a bird

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