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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 120 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. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  2. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  3. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  8. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  9. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  10. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  13. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  14. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  17. Did you ________________ the meat?
  18. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. file — a document
  2. season — of the year
  3. face — to confront
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. wound — past of 'wind'
  6. cold — not warm
  7. wound — an injury
  8. wound — an injury
  9. file — a line of people
  10. cap — of ice
  11. cold — an illness
  12. capital — a city
  13. face — part of the head
  14. cap — a hat
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. cap — a lid
  17. season — to add flavour
  18. season — in sport
  19. file — a tool
  20. degree — from a university
  21. face — to point toward
  22. degree — an amount
  23. capital — money
  24. degree — temperature

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