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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: cold · capital · rule · fork · mate · net · face · spell

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  4. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  7. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  8. Have you found your soul ________________?
  9. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  10. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  11. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  15. How do you ________________ your surname?
  16. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  19. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  20. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  21. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  22. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  23. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  24. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. net — after costs
  3. mate — a friend
  4. net — in sport
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. capital — a city
  7. rule — government
  8. mate — a partner
  9. fork — a garden tool
  10. fork — to eat with
  11. face — to point toward
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. cold — not warm
  14. face — to confront
  15. spell — letters
  16. spell — magic
  17. capital — money
  18. net — for catching
  19. mate — to breed
  20. fork — in a road
  21. spell — a short time
  22. face — part of the head
  23. rule — a law
  24. rule — to rule out

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