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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. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. The ball is in your ________________.
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  9. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  18. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  19. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  20. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  21. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  22. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  23. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  24. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. capital — a city
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. mouse — the animal
  5. hand — in cards
  6. court — for sport
  7. chest — a box
  8. court — of a king
  9. mine — for digging
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. branch — a division
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. cold — an illness
  14. capital — money
  15. cold — not warm
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. hand — help
  18. mine — belonging to me
  19. chest — of your body
  20. mouse — the animal
  21. branch — of a tree
  22. court — of law
  23. mouse — for a computer
  24. branch — of a bank

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