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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: capital · bowl · ground · cell · squash · cold

  1. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  7. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. There's no middle ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  12. He was locked up in a ________________.
  13. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  14. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  18. Add some ________________ pepper to it.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. capital — a city
  3. squash — the vegetable
  4. cell — a phone
  5. capital — money
  6. cell — in biology
  7. bowl — a football final
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. ground — a position
  10. cold — not warm
  11. ground — the earth
  12. cell — in a prison
  13. squash — to crush
  14. squash — the sport
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. cold — an illness
  17. bowl — to roll
  18. ground — crushed

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