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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: staff · cold · hand · capital · clip · jam · rule · ground

  1. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. There's no middle ________________.
  12. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  13. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  22. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  23. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  24. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?

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

Answer key

  1. ground — the earth
  2. capital — a city
  3. jam — to spread on bread
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. staff — employees
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. clip — a video
  8. rule — a law
  9. hand — in cards
  10. cold — an illness
  11. ground — a position
  12. rule — to rule out
  13. capital — money
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. staff — employees
  16. cold — not warm
  17. clip — for paper
  18. ground — crushed
  19. clip — to cut
  20. hand — help
  21. staff — a stick
  22. jam — in traffic
  23. jam — a tight spot
  24. rule — government

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