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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: spell · capital · wind · band · chair · clip · chest · drill

  1. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  2. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. How do you ________________ your surname?
  7. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  12. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  18. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  19. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. We had a fire ________________ at school today.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a leader
  2. drill — army training
  3. wind — moving air
  4. chair — a professorship
  5. capital — a city
  6. spell — letters
  7. spell — magic
  8. clip — to cut
  9. band — a ring
  10. clip — a video
  11. band — a rubber band
  12. wind — to turn a key
  13. chest — a box
  14. spell — a short time
  15. band — a music group
  16. chest — of your body
  17. chair — to sit on
  18. wind — moving air
  19. capital — a big letter
  20. clip — for paper
  21. drill — the tool
  22. capital — money
  23. chest — of your body
  24. drill — a practice

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