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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: drill · rock · toast · saw · capital · clip · kid · cold

  1. She's very handy with a ________________.
  2. He works in a ________________ mill.
  3. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  4. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  9. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  13. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  16. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  24. We were using a ________________ as a seat.

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

Answer key

  1. saw — the tool
  2. saw — the tool
  3. rock — to move gently
  4. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. cold — an illness
  7. capital — a city
  8. drill — army training
  9. toast — bread
  10. cold — not warm
  11. clip — a video
  12. toast — a drink to someone
  13. kid — to tease
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. rock — music
  16. drill — a practice
  17. clip — to cut
  18. saw — past of 'see'
  19. capital — money
  20. clip — for paper
  21. drill — the tool
  22. kid — child
  23. toast — the most admired
  24. rock — a stone

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