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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 120 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 pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  5. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  6. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  18. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  19. That was a fun ________________.
  20. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  23. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. game — wild animals
  3. shower — to wash
  4. racket — for tennis
  5. racket — for tennis
  6. wound — an injury
  7. file — a line of people
  8. file — a document
  9. shower — rain
  10. chip — in a computer
  11. wound — an injury
  12. file — a tool
  13. capital — a city
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. tear — from crying
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. chip — for betting
  18. tear — from crying
  19. game — a match
  20. game — a kind of play
  21. tear — to rip
  22. chip — to eat
  23. racket — a loud noise
  24. capital — money

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