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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 124 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. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  2. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  3. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  4. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  5. The King held a masked ________________.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  12. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  13. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  17. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  23. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  24. The elephant has a huge ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. board — a committee
  2. board — to get on
  3. pound — to hit hard
  4. board — a flat piece
  5. ball — a dance
  6. cold — an illness
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. stem — a stem cell
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. trunk — of a car
  12. stem — of a plant
  13. pound — a weight
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. capital — a city
  16. ball — a great time
  17. stem — to come from
  18. cold — not warm
  19. capital — money
  20. pound — for dogs
  21. bat — the animal
  22. ball — a round shape
  23. trunk — of a tree
  24. trunk — of an elephant

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