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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. What do you think of the new ________________?
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  7. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  8. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. The ball is in your ________________.
  11. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  14. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  15. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  16. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  17. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  18. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  19. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.

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

Answer key

  1. cabinet — ministers
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. capital — money
  4. cabinet — ministers
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. net — for catching
  7. root — of a word
  8. net — after costs
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. court — for sport
  11. row — a line
  12. cold — not warm
  13. kick — in football
  14. kick — with a leg
  15. net — in sport
  16. kick — a thrill
  17. root — the cause
  18. court — of a king
  19. root — of a plant
  20. capital — a city
  21. cabinet — a cupboard
  22. cold — an illness
  23. row — to paddle
  24. court — of law

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