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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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  7. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  8. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. How do you ________________ your surname?
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. What do you think of the new ________________?
  15. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  16. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  17. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  20. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  21. The King held a masked ________________.
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. ball — a round shape
  3. wind — moving air
  4. ball — a great time
  5. cold — an illness
  6. capital — a city
  7. club — for golf
  8. spell — a short time
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. spell — letters
  11. capital — money
  12. wind — moving air
  13. cold — not warm
  14. cabinet — ministers
  15. cabinet — ministers
  16. club — a group
  17. cabinet — a cupboard
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. spell — magic
  20. club — for dancing
  21. ball — a dance
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. snap — to snap out of it
  24. cold — the Cold War

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