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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 · wind · capital · date · bark · spell · mug · mate

  1. Have you settled on a ________________?
  2. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  3. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  4. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  5. How do you ________________ your surname?
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  10. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  11. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  12. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. Where did you ________________ them?
  20. Have you found your soul ________________?
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  23. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. date — on the calendar
  2. wind — to turn a key
  3. mate — to breed
  4. spell — magic
  5. spell — letters
  6. capital — money
  7. mate — a friend
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. spell — a short time
  10. mug — a cup
  11. capital — a city
  12. bark — a dog's sound
  13. cold — not warm
  14. mug — a face
  15. wind — moving air
  16. date — on the calendar
  17. wind — moving air
  18. cold — an illness
  19. mug — to rob
  20. mate — a partner
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. date — the fruit
  23. bark — to shout
  24. cold — the Cold War

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