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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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 · march · clip · ground · squash · patient · net · capital

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  9. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  10. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  11. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  12. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  13. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  14. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  15. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  16. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  17. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. There's no middle ________________.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  22. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  23. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  24. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. clip — to cut
  4. capital — money
  5. march — the month
  6. cold — not warm
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. net — in sport
  9. march — the month
  10. ground — the earth
  11. net — after costs
  12. ground — crushed
  13. patient — a sick person
  14. patient — a sick person
  15. march — music
  16. squash — the sport
  17. squash — to crush
  18. clip — for paper
  19. ground — a position
  20. clip — a video
  21. capital — a city
  22. patient — calm and waiting
  23. net — for catching
  24. squash — the vegetable

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