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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. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. Don't do anything ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  14. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  15. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  16. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  17. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  18. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  24. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — in an idiom
  2. capital — money
  3. band — a ring
  4. capital — a city
  5. band — a rubber band
  6. land — to come down
  7. bat — the animal
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. rash — hasty
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. dip — a sauce
  12. cold — not warm
  13. dip — to dunk
  14. rash — on the skin
  15. branch — of a bank
  16. branch — a division
  17. dip — to sink
  18. rash — a series
  19. cold — an illness
  20. land — ground
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. land — a country
  23. band — a music group
  24. branch — of a tree

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