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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. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  2. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  3. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  4. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  10. I'll be taking the ________________.
  11. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  12. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  13. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  14. When are we going to ________________?
  15. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  16. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — money
  2. kick — with a leg
  3. rock — music
  4. rock — to move gently
  5. capital — a city
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. kick — a thrill
  8. chest — of your body
  9. tube — a container
  10. tube — the underground
  11. chest — of your body
  12. row — a quarrel
  13. land — ground
  14. land — to come down
  15. rock — a stone
  16. kick — in football
  17. cold — not warm
  18. cold — an illness
  19. row — a line
  20. tube — in a tire
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. land — a country
  23. row — to paddle
  24. chest — a box

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