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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: hide · deal · roll · field · cold · capital · stick · clip

  1. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  3. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  6. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  7. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  8. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. We're on a ________________ here.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  17. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  18. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. hide — animal skin
  3. roll — a cake
  4. field — for sport
  5. stick — to attach or keep to
  6. stick — a piece of wood
  7. hide — to keep secret
  8. deal — an agreement
  9. clip — for paper
  10. capital — money
  11. cold — not warm
  12. roll — on a roll
  13. capital — a city
  14. capital — a big letter
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. roll — a list
  17. stick — a piece of wood
  18. hide — to keep secret
  19. cold — an illness
  20. field — farmland
  21. field — a subject
  22. deal — to handle
  23. clip — a video
  24. deal — a big deal

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