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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 120 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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: chair · tube · court · wind · clip · capital · rush · bat

  1. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  9. That must've been a ________________.
  10. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  11. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  16. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  20. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  23. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  24. I'll be taking the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rush — to hurry
  2. bat — the animal
  3. tube — a container
  4. wind — moving air
  5. clip — for paper
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. clip — to cut
  8. chair — a professorship
  9. rush — a thrill
  10. chair — to sit on
  11. court — of law
  12. clip — a video
  13. court — of a king
  14. capital — a city
  15. tube — in a tire
  16. rush — hurry
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. court — for sport
  19. wind — to turn a key
  20. capital — a big letter
  21. capital — money
  22. wind — moving air
  23. chair — a leader
  24. tube — the underground

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