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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. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  2. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  3. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  4. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  5. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  14. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  15. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. I'll be taking the ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  20. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  21. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  22. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  23. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. cap — a hat
  2. net — for catching
  3. cap — of ice
  4. tube — in a tire
  5. row — to paddle
  6. cold — an illness
  7. file — a line of people
  8. file — a document
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. tube — a container
  11. capital — money
  12. cold — not warm
  13. net — in sport
  14. club — for golf
  15. club — a group
  16. file — a tool
  17. tube — the underground
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. row — a quarrel
  20. club — for dancing
  21. net — after costs
  22. row — a line
  23. cap — a lid
  24. capital — a city

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