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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 water is too ________________.
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  6. The ball is in your ________________.
  7. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  8. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  9. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  10. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  13. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  14. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  15. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. False peace will not ________________.
  21. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  22. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. Many English words ________________ from Latin.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. capital — money
  3. court — of law
  4. capital — a city
  5. trunk — of an elephant
  6. court — for sport
  7. kick — in football
  8. court — of a king
  9. kick — a thrill
  10. kick — with a leg
  11. spring — the season
  12. stem — of a plant
  13. trunk — of a tree
  14. stem — a stem cell
  15. last — final
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. trunk — of a car
  18. spring — of water
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. last — to go on
  21. spring — a coil
  22. last — finally
  23. cold — an illness
  24. stem — to come from

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