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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. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  10. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  11. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  14. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  15. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  16. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  20. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  23. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  24. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. cold — not warm
  3. fine — high quality
  4. capital — a city
  5. race — the arms race
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. fine — all right
  8. clip — to cut
  9. chair — a leader
  10. race — humankind
  11. trunk — of an elephant
  12. clip — a video
  13. wake — a trail
  14. wake — before a funeral
  15. race — a contest
  16. trunk — of a tree
  17. cold — an illness
  18. capital — money
  19. fine — a penalty
  20. chair — a professorship
  21. clip — for paper
  22. wake — to stop sleeping
  23. trunk — of a car
  24. chair — to sit on

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