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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 · hand · capital · stem · press · cap · patient · toast

  1. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  6. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  10. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  11. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  12. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  15. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  16. Did you ________________ the button?
  17. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  18. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  23. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  24. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.

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

Answer key

  1. cap — a hat
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. toast — a drink to someone
  4. cold — not warm
  5. patient — calm and waiting
  6. press — newspapers
  7. capital — money
  8. hand — help
  9. toast — bread
  10. toast — the most admired
  11. press — a publisher
  12. hand — part of the body
  13. hand — in cards
  14. stem — to come from
  15. patient — a sick person
  16. press — to push
  17. cap — a lid
  18. stem — of a plant
  19. cold — an illness
  20. cap — of ice
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. patient — a sick person
  23. capital — a city
  24. stem — a stem cell

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