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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 120 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: bat · wind · last · rest · bark · march · capital · clip

  1. False peace will not ________________.
  2. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  6. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  9. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  15. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  16. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  17. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  18. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  24. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.

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

Answer key

  1. last — to go on
  2. march — music
  3. capital — a city
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. wind — moving air
  6. rest — what's left
  7. clip — to cut
  8. rest — a break
  9. last — finally
  10. wind — moving air
  11. clip — a video
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. last — final
  15. bark — of a tree
  16. rest — what's left
  17. wind — to turn a key
  18. bark — to shout
  19. clip — for paper
  20. capital — money
  21. bat — the animal
  22. bark — a dog's sound
  23. march — the month
  24. march — the month

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