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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. Have you met the new head ________________?
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  7. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  8. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  9. That must've been a ________________.
  10. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  11. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  21. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  22. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. Take your time. There's no ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — a trainer
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. capital — a city
  4. file — a tool
  5. cold — not warm
  6. coach — a trainer
  7. file — a document
  8. coach — pulled by horses
  9. rush — a thrill
  10. branch — of a bank
  11. branch — a division
  12. file — a line of people
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. rush — to hurry
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. bat — the animal
  18. branch — of a tree
  19. capital — money
  20. fall — to drop
  21. fall — to drop
  22. fall — the season
  23. cold — an illness
  24. rush — hurry

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