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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. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. We're on a ________________ here.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  10. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  11. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  12. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  13. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  14. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  15. He is an ace ________________.
  16. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  17. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  18. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. march — the month
  3. roll — on a roll
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. capital — money
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. game — a match
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. pitcher — a jug
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. roll — a list
  12. scale — size or range
  13. march — music
  14. row — a quarrel
  15. pitcher — in baseball
  16. roll — a cake
  17. scale — for weighing
  18. row — a line
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. scale — in music
  21. march — the month
  22. straw — a straw man
  23. game — wild animals
  24. row — to paddle

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