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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: mine · cold · capital · present · cell · bank

  1. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  7. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  10. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  11. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  14. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  17. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  18. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — belonging to me
  2. capital — money
  3. bank — of a river
  4. mine — for digging
  5. cold — not warm
  6. present — there
  7. cell — in biology
  8. cold — an illness
  9. capital — a city
  10. mine — an explosive
  11. cell — a phone
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. bank — for money
  14. capital — a big letter
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. present — a gift
  17. bank — for money
  18. present — the time now

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