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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. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  2. You don't need to ________________ round.
  3. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  4. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  5. When was this ________________ built?
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  8. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  9. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  10. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  13. We're almost out of ________________.
  14. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  23. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. temple — a place of worship
  2. pop — to visit
  3. court — of law
  4. fall — the season
  5. temple — a place of worship
  6. capital — money
  7. fall — to drop
  8. cell — in biology
  9. temple — side of the head
  10. face — to point toward
  11. court — for sport
  12. court — of a king
  13. pop — soda
  14. face — part of the head
  15. cold — an illness
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. cold — not warm
  18. fall — to drop
  19. capital — a city
  20. pop — music
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. cell — a phone
  23. face — to confront
  24. cold — the Cold War

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