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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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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 · cold · last · cell · ground · temple · season · kid

  1. False peace will not ________________.
  2. He was locked up in a ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  8. There's no middle ________________.
  9. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  12. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  13. When was this ________________ built?
  14. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  15. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. Did you ________________ the meat?
  20. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  21. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. last — to go on
  2. cell — in a prison
  3. cold — not warm
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. capital — a city
  6. capital — money
  7. cell — in biology
  8. ground — a position
  9. last — finally
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. ground — crushed
  12. kid — to tease
  13. temple — a place of worship
  14. season — in sport
  15. temple — a place of worship
  16. cold — an illness
  17. last — final
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. season — to add flavour
  20. season — of the year
  21. cell — a phone
  22. kid — child
  23. temple — side of the head
  24. ground — the earth

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