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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: chest · clip · bat · net · fan · mouse · capital · march

  1. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  3. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  4. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  5. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  11. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  19. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  20. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  21. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  22. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. What was your ________________ profit last year?

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. march — the month
  3. mouse — the animal
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. net — for catching
  6. clip — to cut
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. mouse — for a computer
  9. clip — for paper
  10. march — music
  11. chest — of your body
  12. chest — a box
  13. net — in sport
  14. capital — money
  15. clip — a video
  16. bat — the animal
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. fan — to cool the air
  19. march — the month
  20. mouse — the animal
  21. capital — a city
  22. fan — a supporter
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. net — after costs

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