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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. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  2. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  11. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  12. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  20. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  21. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. bank — for money
  2. lean — to rest against
  3. capital — a city
  4. rule — a law
  5. degree — an amount
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. bank — for money
  9. hand — in cards
  10. lean — thin
  11. hand — part of the body
  12. rule — government
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. degree — from a university
  15. cold — not warm
  16. cold — an illness
  17. lean — to bend
  18. bat — the animal
  19. bank — of a river
  20. rule — to rule out
  21. hand — help
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. capital — money
  24. degree — temperature

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