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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. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  2. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  5. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  6. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  9. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  10. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  13. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  14. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  15. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  16. He is an ace ________________.
  17. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  19. We're on a ________________ here.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. fine — a penalty
  3. cold — an illness
  4. pitcher — a jug
  5. trunk — of a car
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. trunk — of an elephant
  9. foot — a measure
  10. capital — a city
  11. cold — not warm
  12. fine — high quality
  13. fine — all right
  14. foot — part of the body
  15. roll — a cake
  16. pitcher — in baseball
  17. roll — a list
  18. kid — to tease
  19. roll — on a roll
  20. capital — money
  21. foot — the bottom
  22. kid — child
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. trunk — of a tree

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