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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. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  3. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  6. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  7. False peace will not ________________.
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  10. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  11. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  16. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  21. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  22. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. can — a tin
  3. last — final
  4. cold — not warm
  5. net — for catching
  6. capital — a city
  7. last — to go on
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. mine — for digging
  10. net — after costs
  11. last — finally
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. band — a music group
  14. cold — an illness
  15. fall — the season
  16. fall — to drop
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. can — to be able to
  19. capital — money
  20. net — in sport
  21. can — a tin
  22. band — a rubber band
  23. cold — the Cold War
  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