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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: perch · content · capital · clip · bark · race · field · sharp

  1. It's one o'clock ________________.
  2. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  3. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  4. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  5. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  6. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  7. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  8. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  14. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — exactly
  2. sharp — with an edge
  3. race — the arms race
  4. sharp — clever
  5. bark — a dog's sound
  6. perch — the fish
  7. content — happy
  8. perch — for a bird
  9. clip — for paper
  10. field — a subject
  11. capital — a big letter
  12. field — for sport
  13. bark — to shout
  14. content — the amount
  15. field — farmland
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. bark — of a tree
  19. capital — a city
  20. capital — money
  21. clip — a video
  22. clip — to cut
  23. race — humankind
  24. race — a contest

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