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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. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  6. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  9. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  10. The ball is in your ________________.
  11. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  12. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  13. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. We're almost out of ________________.
  16. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  17. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  20. That was a fun ________________.
  21. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  22. You don't need to ________________ round.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — money
  2. net — after costs
  3. capital — a city
  4. game — wild animals
  5. court — of a king
  6. pop — music
  7. cold — not warm
  8. face — to point toward
  9. face — to confront
  10. court — for sport
  11. face — part of the head
  12. net — for catching
  13. game — a kind of play
  14. cold — an illness
  15. pop — soda
  16. court — of law
  17. wind — moving air
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. wind — to turn a key
  20. game — a match
  21. net — in sport
  22. pop — to visit
  23. wind — moving air
  24. capital — a big letter

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