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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'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  2. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  3. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  4. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  9. My father caught me by the ________________.
  10. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  11. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  12. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  13. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. arm — part of the body
  2. wind — moving air
  3. current — happening now
  4. arm — a part of something
  5. capital — a city
  6. file — a line of people
  7. cold — an illness
  8. current — of water
  9. arm — part of the body
  10. scale — for weighing
  11. scale — in music
  12. row — a quarrel
  13. capital — a big letter
  14. wind — moving air
  15. file — a document
  16. current — electric
  17. row — to paddle
  18. scale — size or range
  19. row — a line
  20. capital — money
  21. file — a tool
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. wind — to turn a key
  24. cold — not warm

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