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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. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  8. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  9. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  10. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  11. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  12. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  13. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  19. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  20. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  21. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  22. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stick — a piece of wood
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. hand — in cards
  4. game — a match
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. cold — an illness
  7. game — a kind of play
  8. stick — a piece of wood
  9. cell — a phone
  10. chip — for betting
  11. capital — a city
  12. pit — a fruit stone
  13. pit — a hole
  14. hand — help
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. cold — not warm
  18. stick — to attach or keep to
  19. chip — to eat
  20. cell — in biology
  21. pit — in a race
  22. chip — in a computer
  23. game — wild animals
  24. capital — money

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