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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. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  2. Don't do anything ________________.
  3. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  14. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  15. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  16. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  17. Have you settled on a ________________?
  18. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  19. The tickets are free of ________________.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. charge — in control
  2. rash — hasty
  3. date — on the calendar
  4. mine — for digging
  5. capital — money
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. charge — electricity
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. wind — moving air
  10. cold — not warm
  11. cold — an illness
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. straw — to clutch at straws
  14. date — the fruit
  15. rash — a series
  16. rash — on the skin
  17. date — on the calendar
  18. wind — to turn a key
  19. charge — a price
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. wind — moving air
  22. capital — a city
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. mine — an explosive

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