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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 120 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. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  2. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  5. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. It's one o'clock ________________.
  11. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  12. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  13. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  18. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. How do you ________________ your surname?

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. sharp — with an edge
  3. cold — not warm
  4. calf — of the leg
  5. row — a line
  6. cold — an illness
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. capital — money
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. sharp — exactly
  11. spell — a short time
  12. snap — to click
  13. sharp — clever
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. kid — to tease
  17. snap — to snap out of it
  18. calf — a young animal
  19. capital — a city
  20. spell — magic
  21. kid — child
  22. calf — a young animal
  23. row — to paddle
  24. spell — letters

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