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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. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  6. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  9. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  10. The ________________ went through the wall.
  11. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  12. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  20. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  21. I can't ________________ this cold.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. nail — on a finger
  3. capital — money
  4. game — wild animals
  5. track — a path
  6. stand — for spectators
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. stand — on your feet
  9. track — a song
  10. nail — for a hammer
  11. mine — an explosive
  12. game — a kind of play
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. track — to keep track
  15. game — a match
  16. capital — a city
  17. nail — for a hammer
  18. hand — in cards
  19. mine — for digging
  20. capital — a big letter
  21. stand — to bear
  22. cold — an illness
  23. cold — not warm
  24. hand — part of the body

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