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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. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  3. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  4. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  5. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  6. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  11. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  14. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  15. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  18. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  19. He is an ace ________________.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. The ball is in your ________________.
  22. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  23. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  24. How do you ________________ your surname?

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. spell — magic
  3. court — of law
  4. pitcher — a jug
  5. racket — for tennis
  6. racket — a loud noise
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. spell — a short time
  9. court — of a king
  10. snap — to snap out of it
  11. racket — for tennis
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. wound — an injury
  14. snap — to click
  15. wound — past of 'wind'
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. snap — to speak sharply
  18. wound — an injury
  19. pitcher — in baseball
  20. capital — money
  21. court — for sport
  22. pitcher — a jug
  23. straw — a straw man
  24. spell — letters

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