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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: board · race · object · clip · capital · bat · cold · temple

  1. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. When was this ________________ built?
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  9. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  10. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  11. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  14. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  15. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  16. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  22. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. object — to protest
  3. clip — a video
  4. cold — not warm
  5. capital — money
  6. temple — a place of worship
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. race — a contest
  9. board — to get on
  10. object — a thing
  11. object — an aim
  12. clip — to cut
  13. race — the arms race
  14. race — humankind
  15. temple — side of the head
  16. temple — a place of worship
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. clip — for paper
  19. bat — the animal
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. board — a committee
  22. board — a flat piece
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. cold — an illness

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