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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. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  5. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  6. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  7. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  8. We're on a ________________ here.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. False peace will not ________________.
  12. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  13. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  14. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  15. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. scale — in music
  3. capital — a city
  4. last — final
  5. vault — an arched ceiling
  6. scale — for weighing
  7. roll — a list
  8. roll — on a roll
  9. cold — not warm
  10. land — to come down
  11. last — to go on
  12. vault — in gymnastics
  13. capital — money
  14. roll — a cake
  15. scale — size or range
  16. shower — rain
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. cold — an illness
  19. shower — to wash
  20. land — ground
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. vault — a safe
  23. land — a country
  24. last — finally

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