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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: capital · cold · court · fork · chair · spell · wave · rock

  1. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  2. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  3. The ball is in your ________________.
  4. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  5. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  6. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  7. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  8. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  9. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  10. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  11. How do you ________________ your surname?
  12. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  13. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  14. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  20. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  21. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  24. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a leader
  2. chair — to sit on
  3. court — for sport
  4. rock — music
  5. court — of a king
  6. wave — a sudden rise
  7. wave — of the sea
  8. chair — a professorship
  9. spell — a short time
  10. rock — to move gently
  11. spell — letters
  12. rock — a stone
  13. fork — in a road
  14. fork — a garden tool
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. capital — a city
  17. capital — money
  18. cold — not warm
  19. court — of law
  20. capital — a big letter
  21. fork — to eat with
  22. cold — an illness
  23. wave — with your hand
  24. spell — magic

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