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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 116 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. False peace will not ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. I can't ________________ this cold.
  7. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  8. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  9. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  10. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  11. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  12. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. It's one o'clock ________________.
  17. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  18. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  22. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. last — to go on
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. vault — an arched ceiling
  5. cold — not warm
  6. stand — to bear
  7. last — final
  8. sharp — with an edge
  9. stand — on your feet
  10. capital — money
  11. race — a contest
  12. last — finally
  13. capital — a city
  14. race — the arms race
  15. clip — for paper
  16. sharp — exactly
  17. sharp — clever
  18. stand — for spectators
  19. cold — an illness
  20. clip — to cut
  21. race — humankind
  22. vault — a safe
  23. clip — a video
  24. vault — in gymnastics

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