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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. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  5. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  8. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  9. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  12. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  13. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  18. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  19. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  20. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. David sat on the ________________.
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. cold — not warm
  3. land — to come down
  4. patient — a sick person
  5. patient — calm and waiting
  6. capital — money
  7. bear — the animal
  8. swing — in golf
  9. patient — a sick person
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. fan — a supporter
  12. bear — the animal
  13. swing — music
  14. land — ground
  15. fan — to cool the air
  16. capital — a city
  17. fan — a supporter
  18. bear — to put up with
  19. march — the month
  20. march — the month
  21. land — a country
  22. cold — an illness
  23. swing — to play on
  24. march — music

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