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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: fork · fall · capital · chest · wind · game · degree · rule

  1. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  6. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  7. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  11. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  12. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  15. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  16. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  20. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. rule — a law
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. fall — the season
  4. game — a match
  5. fork — to eat with
  6. fork — a garden tool
  7. fall — to drop
  8. capital — money
  9. chest — of your body
  10. fall — to drop
  11. rule — to rule out
  12. game — a kind of play
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. game — wild animals
  15. degree — an amount
  16. fork — in a road
  17. wind — moving air
  18. capital — a city
  19. chest — of your body
  20. wind — moving air
  21. chest — a box
  22. rule — government
  23. degree — temperature
  24. degree — from a university

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