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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: cap · clip · craft · wound · cold · bulb · capital · spring

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  4. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  7. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  8. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  9. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  10. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  11. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  18. I've got to change the light ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. The light ________________ burned out.
  23. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  24. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. clip — a video
  3. wound — past of 'wind'
  4. craft — a skill
  5. spring — a coil
  6. cap — a lid
  7. craft — boats
  8. cap — of ice
  9. spring — the season
  10. capital — money
  11. wound — an injury
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. capital — a city
  14. craft — a handicraft
  15. clip — for paper
  16. spring — of water
  17. bulb — of a plant
  18. bulb — for light
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. cold — not warm
  21. clip — to cut
  22. bulb — for light
  23. cap — a hat
  24. wound — an injury

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