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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. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  6. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  7. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  8. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. He is an ace ________________.
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  14. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  15. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  22. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  23. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. tear — from crying
  4. spring — of water
  5. chair — a leader
  6. bark — of a tree
  7. tear — from crying
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. hand — help
  11. pitcher — in baseball
  12. tear — to rip
  13. capital — money
  14. bark — to shout
  15. pitcher — a jug
  16. spring — a coil
  17. wound — an injury
  18. hand — in cards
  19. spring — the season
  20. wound — an injury
  21. bark — a dog's sound
  22. chair — to sit on
  23. chair — a professorship
  24. wound — past of 'wind'

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