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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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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: capital · race · land · wave · clip · chip · tear · prune

  1. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  11. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  12. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  13. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  14. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  15. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  16. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  17. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  18. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  22. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  24. There's a computer ________________ on the table.

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

Answer key

  1. chip — to eat
  2. clip — to cut
  3. wave — a sudden rise
  4. land — ground
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. wave — with your hand
  7. capital — a city
  8. race — the arms race
  9. clip — a video
  10. prune — to trim
  11. chip — for betting
  12. wave — of the sea
  13. land — a country
  14. prune — the fruit
  15. tear — from crying
  16. tear — to rip
  17. race — a contest
  18. race — humankind
  19. land — to come down
  20. clip — for paper
  21. prune — to trim
  22. tear — from crying
  23. capital — money
  24. chip — in a computer

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