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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 · cold · leaves · chest · pass · clip · kid · capital

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  3. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  9. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  10. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  17. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. pass — to spend time
  3. leaves — lets stay
  4. chest — of your body
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. cold — not warm
  7. clip — for paper
  8. pass — a permit
  9. leaves — to go away
  10. hide — to keep secret
  11. clip — to cut
  12. hide — to keep secret
  13. cold — an illness
  14. capital — a big letter
  15. chest — a box
  16. leaves — of a tree
  17. hide — animal skin
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. capital — money
  20. capital — a city
  21. kid — child
  22. pass — to succeed
  23. clip — a video
  24. chest — of your body

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