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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: bat · clip · roll · capital · sharp · craft · mine · staff

  1. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  2. It's one o'clock ________________.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  5. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  6. We're on a ________________ here.
  7. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  8. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  9. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  14. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  17. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  21. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  22. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  23. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  24. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. staff — employees
  2. sharp — exactly
  3. clip — for paper
  4. mine — belonging to me
  5. craft — boats
  6. roll — on a roll
  7. craft — a handicraft
  8. capital — a city
  9. sharp — clever
  10. clip — a video
  11. capital — a big letter
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. capital — money
  14. sharp — with an edge
  15. clip — to cut
  16. staff — a stick
  17. roll — a list
  18. bat — the animal
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. mine — for digging
  21. craft — a skill
  22. roll — a cake
  23. staff — employees
  24. mine — an explosive

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