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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: capital · bark · cell · content · deal · clip · fork · spring

  1. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  4. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  5. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  6. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  10. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  11. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  12. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  13. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  14. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  18. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. He was locked up in a ________________.
  22. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  23. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  24. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. clip — a video
  3. content — the amount
  4. deal — to handle
  5. bark — of a tree
  6. deal — a big deal
  7. capital — a city
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. spring — the season
  10. fork — to eat with
  11. deal — an agreement
  12. fork — a garden tool
  13. cell — in biology
  14. bark — to shout
  15. spring — a coil
  16. clip — to cut
  17. bark — a dog's sound
  18. fork — in a road
  19. capital — money
  20. spring — of water
  21. cell — in a prison
  22. content — happy
  23. capital — a big letter
  24. cell — a phone

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