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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: face · perch · march · capital · clip · mouse · pop · cold

  1. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  2. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  8. We're almost out of ________________.
  9. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  13. You don't need to ________________ round.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  20. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  21. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  24. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.

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

Answer key

  1. mouse — the animal
  2. face — part of the head
  3. clip — a video
  4. face — to point toward
  5. march — the month
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. mouse — for a computer
  8. pop — soda
  9. perch — for a bird
  10. cold — not warm
  11. capital — money
  12. pop — music
  13. pop — to visit
  14. clip — for paper
  15. perch — the fish
  16. capital — a city
  17. cold — an illness
  18. march — the month
  19. capital — a big letter
  20. perch — for a bird
  21. mouse — the animal
  22. clip — to cut
  23. march — music
  24. face — to confront

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