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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 ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. Don't do anything ________________.
  5. There's no middle ________________.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  12. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  13. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. I'll be taking the ________________.
  16. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  17. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  18. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. She's very handy with a ________________.
  21. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  22. He works in a ________________ mill.
  23. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  24. Add some ________________ pepper to it.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. cold — not warm
  3. capital — a city
  4. rash — hasty
  5. ground — a position
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. tube — a container
  8. cold — an illness
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. ground — the earth
  12. wind — moving air
  13. capital — money
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. tube — the underground
  16. rash — on the skin
  17. tube — in a tire
  18. rash — a series
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. saw — the tool
  21. saw — past of 'see'
  22. saw — the tool
  23. wind — moving air
  24. ground — crushed

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