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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: cold · fall · kid · club · capital · spring · lean · season

  1. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  6. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  7. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  8. Did you ________________ the meat?
  9. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  16. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  22. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  23. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. season — in sport
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  4. cold — an illness
  5. lean — to bend
  6. club — for golf
  7. club — a group
  8. season — to add flavour
  9. capital — a city
  10. spring — of water
  11. lean — thin
  12. capital — money
  13. fall — to drop
  14. kid — to tease
  15. club — for dancing
  16. season — of the year
  17. spring — the season
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. spring — a coil
  20. kid — child
  21. fall — the season
  22. fall — to drop
  23. lean — to rest against
  24. cold — not warm

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