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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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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  5. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  6. The King held a masked ________________.
  7. The ________________ market has crashed.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  10. He was locked up in a ________________.
  11. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  12. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  13. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  14. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  15. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  16. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  17. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  20. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  21. How do you ________________ your surname?
  22. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  23. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  24. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. racket — for tennis
  3. capital — money
  4. stock — a soup base
  5. spell — a short time
  6. ball — a dance
  7. stock — shares
  8. chest — of your body
  9. ball — a round shape
  10. cell — in a prison
  11. chest — of your body
  12. cell — in biology
  13. capital — a big letter
  14. racket — for tennis
  15. stock — goods
  16. racket — a loud noise
  17. spell — magic
  18. chest — a box
  19. cell — a phone
  20. scale — in music
  21. spell — letters
  22. ball — a great time
  23. scale — size or range
  24. scale — for weighing

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