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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: sharp · swing · clip · spring · ball · capital · tear · scale

  1. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  2. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  8. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  9. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  10. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  11. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  12. David sat on the ________________.
  13. It's one o'clock ________________.
  14. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. The King held a masked ________________.
  19. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  24. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — clever
  2. tear — to rip
  3. tear — from crying
  4. tear — from crying
  5. capital — a city
  6. capital — money
  7. scale — in music
  8. swing — in golf
  9. ball — a great time
  10. sharp — with an edge
  11. scale — for weighing
  12. swing — to play on
  13. sharp — exactly
  14. capital — a big letter
  15. spring — a coil
  16. spring — of water
  17. clip — for paper
  18. ball — a dance
  19. spring — the season
  20. clip — a video
  21. scale — size or range
  22. clip — to cut
  23. ball — a round shape
  24. swing — music

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