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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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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: present · land · capital · last · tear · ball · cold · hand

  1. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  5. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  6. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  7. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  8. When are we going to ________________?
  9. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  10. The King held a masked ________________.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  14. False peace will not ________________.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  24. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.

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

Answer key

  1. present — the time now
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. land — ground
  4. last — final
  5. last — finally
  6. tear — from crying
  7. tear — to rip
  8. land — to come down
  9. ball — a round shape
  10. ball — a dance
  11. hand — in cards
  12. tear — from crying
  13. land — a country
  14. last — to go on
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. hand — help
  18. capital — a city
  19. cold — an illness
  20. cold — not warm
  21. present — a gift
  22. capital — money
  23. ball — a great time
  24. present — there

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