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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 water is too ________________.
  2. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  3. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. It's one o'clock ________________.
  6. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. You don't need to ________________ round.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  12. The ________________ took off on time.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  15. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  16. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  17. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  18. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  19. We're almost out of ________________.
  20. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  21. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  22. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  23. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. plane — a tool
  3. band — a rubber band
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. sharp — exactly
  6. capital — a city
  7. capital — money
  8. pop — to visit
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. bat — the animal
  11. band — a music group
  12. plane — an aircraft
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. band — a ring
  15. pop — music
  16. sharp — clever
  17. sharp — with an edge
  18. plane — in geometry
  19. pop — soda
  20. bowl — a dish
  21. bowl — a football final
  22. capital — a big letter
  23. bowl — to roll
  24. cold — an illness

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