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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: kid · racket · fall · hand · court · clip · chip · capital

  1. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  6. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  7. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  12. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  15. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  16. The ball is in your ________________.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  24. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — money
  2. kid — child
  3. kid — to tease
  4. hand — help
  5. racket — a loud noise
  6. chip — to eat
  7. fall — to drop
  8. clip — to cut
  9. racket — for tennis
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. chip — in a computer
  12. court — of a king
  13. capital — a city
  14. chip — for betting
  15. fall — to drop
  16. court — for sport
  17. clip — for paper
  18. court — of law
  19. clip — a video
  20. hand — in cards
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. racket — for tennis
  24. fall — the season

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