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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: race · chair · cap · band · capital · march · clip · game

  1. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  2. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  3. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  4. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  5. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  9. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  10. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  11. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  12. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  13. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  17. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  18. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  22. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. race — a contest
  3. band — a music group
  4. cap — a lid
  5. chair — a professorship
  6. game — a match
  7. clip — to cut
  8. race — the arms race
  9. chair — to sit on
  10. chair — a leader
  11. band — a rubber band
  12. game — a kind of play
  13. capital — money
  14. clip — for paper
  15. clip — a video
  16. march — the month
  17. march — music
  18. band — a ring
  19. game — wild animals
  20. capital — a city
  21. cap — of ice
  22. capital — a big letter
  23. race — humankind
  24. cap — a hat

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