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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. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  2. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  3. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. That must've been a ________________.
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  8. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  9. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  13. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  14. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  15. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  16. That was a fun ________________.
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  19. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  22. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. rush — hurry
  2. rush — to hurry
  3. deal — an agreement
  4. capital — money
  5. rush — a thrill
  6. march — music
  7. net — in sport
  8. cap — a lid
  9. cap — of ice
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. march — the month
  12. game — wild animals
  13. cap — a hat
  14. deal — a big deal
  15. game — a kind of play
  16. game — a match
  17. spring — a coil
  18. net — for catching
  19. deal — to handle
  20. spring — of water
  21. march — the month
  22. net — after costs
  23. spring — the season
  24. capital — a city

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