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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: capital · cold · kick · shower · march · lean · clip · saw

  1. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  9. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  10. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  14. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  15. He works in a ________________ mill.
  16. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  17. She's very handy with a ________________.
  18. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. kick — in football
  2. shower — to wash
  3. clip — to cut
  4. lean — thin
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. cold — an illness
  7. cold — not warm
  8. march — the month
  9. lean — to bend
  10. march — music
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. capital — money
  13. capital — a big letter
  14. saw — past of 'see'
  15. saw — the tool
  16. kick — a thrill
  17. saw — the tool
  18. lean — to rest against
  19. shower — rain
  20. march — the month
  21. clip — for paper
  22. capital — a city
  23. kick — with a leg
  24. clip — a video

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