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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 120 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: wind · wake · capital · chest · game · present

  1. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  2. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  6. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  7. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  8. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  9. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  10. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  11. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — a box
  2. present — a gift
  3. wind — moving air
  4. game — wild animals
  5. present — the time now
  6. wake — to stop sleeping
  7. present — there
  8. wake — a trail
  9. game — a kind of play
  10. capital — money
  11. capital — a city
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. chest — of your body
  14. wind — moving air
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. wake — before a funeral
  17. game — a match
  18. chest — of your body

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