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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  7. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  8. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  9. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  10. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  11. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  12. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  13. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  20. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  21. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  22. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. court — for sport
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. cold — not warm
  5. content — happy
  6. racket — for tennis
  7. race — humankind
  8. court — of a king
  9. net — in sport
  10. race — the arms race
  11. racket — a loud noise
  12. capital — a city
  13. net — after costs
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. spring — of water
  16. racket — for tennis
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. content — the amount
  19. race — a contest
  20. spring — the season
  21. net — for catching
  22. court — of law
  23. capital — money
  24. spring — a coil

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