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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. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  2. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  6. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  7. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  8. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  9. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  10. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  13. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  16. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  17. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  18. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  19. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. I'll be taking the ________________.
  22. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  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. capital — money
  2. spell — letters
  3. rock — to move gently
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. rock — a stone
  6. tube — in a tire
  7. spell — magic
  8. pit — a hole
  9. straw — dry grass
  10. pit — a fruit stone
  11. cold — not warm
  12. rock — music
  13. spell — a short time
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. straw — to clutch at straws
  16. dip — to sink
  17. dip — to dunk
  18. pit — in a race
  19. dip — a sauce
  20. capital — a city
  21. tube — the underground
  22. tube — a container
  23. cold — the Cold War
  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