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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  4. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  7. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  10. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. Don't do anything ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  15. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  16. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  22. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  23. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  24. The ________________ change colour in autumn.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. kid — child
  3. chair — to sit on
  4. fall — the season
  5. capital — a city
  6. fall — to drop
  7. chair — a leader
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. fall — to drop
  10. leaves — lets stay
  11. cold — an illness
  12. rash — hasty
  13. cold — not warm
  14. march — the month
  15. march — music
  16. leaves — to go away
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. march — the month
  19. capital — money
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. chair — a professorship
  22. rash — on the skin
  23. rash — a series
  24. leaves — 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