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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. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  7. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  10. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  11. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  12. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  19. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  20. It's one o'clock ________________.
  21. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  24. I'll take my ________________ from you.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. sharp — with an edge
  3. spring — the season
  4. capital — money
  5. spring — a coil
  6. cue — for pool
  7. cue — a signal
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. wind — moving air
  10. lash — an eyelash
  11. wake — to stop sleeping
  12. lash — a whip stroke
  13. cold — not warm
  14. wind — moving air
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. lash — to lash out
  17. spring — of water
  18. wake — before a funeral
  19. sharp — clever
  20. sharp — exactly
  21. wind — to turn a key
  22. cold — an illness
  23. wake — a trail
  24. cue — a hint

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