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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 beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  2. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  3. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  4. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  7. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  8. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  9. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  10. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  14. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  15. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  16. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  19. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  20. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  21. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  22. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. squash — to crush
  3. shower — a meteor shower
  4. tear — to rip
  5. chest — a box
  6. kick — with a leg
  7. kick — a thrill
  8. squash — the sport
  9. mark — to pay attention
  10. mark — a trace
  11. shower — rain
  12. capital — money
  13. chest — of your body
  14. chest — of your body
  15. squash — the vegetable
  16. tear — from crying
  17. cold — an illness
  18. shower — to wash
  19. tear — from crying
  20. mark — a grade
  21. capital — a city
  22. kick — in football
  23. cold — not warm
  24. cold — the Cold War

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