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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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Word bank
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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: cold · club · shower · press · ball · capital

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. Did you ________________ the button?
  5. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  8. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  9. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  12. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  15. The King held a masked ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. capital — a city
  3. capital — money
  4. press — to push
  5. club — for dancing
  6. shower — to wash
  7. shower — rain
  8. press — a publisher
  9. ball — a round shape
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. press — newspapers
  12. club — a group
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. club — for golf
  15. ball — a dance
  16. cold — not warm
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. ball — a great time

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