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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 120 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: chair · ground · board · rest · kid · tear · capital · court

  1. There's no middle ________________.
  2. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  3. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  4. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  5. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  9. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  10. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  11. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  12. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  13. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  16. The ball is in your ________________.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  19. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  20. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  24. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — a position
  2. rest — what's left
  3. board — a flat piece
  4. tear — from crying
  5. court — of law
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. capital — a city
  8. ground — crushed
  9. board — to get on
  10. rest — a break
  11. tear — to rip
  12. board — a committee
  13. chair — a professorship
  14. capital — money
  15. chair — to sit on
  16. court — for sport
  17. tear — from crying
  18. kid — to tease
  19. chair — a leader
  20. court — of a king
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. kid — child
  23. ground — the earth
  24. rest — what's left

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