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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. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  2. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  7. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  8. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  9. He is an ace ________________.
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  17. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  20. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  21. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  22. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  23. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  24. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. scale — in music
  2. wind — to turn a key
  3. capital — money
  4. pitcher — a jug
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. straw — dry grass
  7. scale — for weighing
  8. capital — a city
  9. pitcher — in baseball
  10. wind — moving air
  11. trunk — of a car
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. trunk — of an elephant
  14. cold — not warm
  15. cold — an illness
  16. bear — to put up with
  17. straw — to clutch at straws
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. trunk — of a tree
  20. wind — moving air
  21. bear — the animal
  22. bear — the animal
  23. pitcher — a jug
  24. scale — size or range

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