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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 116 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. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  4. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  7. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  8. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  9. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  10. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  11. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  12. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  13. David sat on the ________________.
  14. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  22. The ball is in your ________________.
  23. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  24. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to speak sharply
  2. capital — a city
  3. fall — the season
  4. court — of a king
  5. cold — an illness
  6. straw — dry grass
  7. trunk — of an elephant
  8. snap — to click
  9. straw — to clutch at straws
  10. trunk — of a tree
  11. snap — to snap out of it
  12. fall — to drop
  13. swing — to play on
  14. swing — in golf
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. court — of law
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. cold — not warm
  20. capital — money
  21. trunk — of a car
  22. court — for sport
  23. swing — music
  24. fall — to drop

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