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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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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: swing · plane · spring · ball · perch · sharp · cold · capital

  1. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  5. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  6. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  7. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. The ________________ took off on time.
  12. The King held a masked ________________.
  13. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  16. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  17. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  18. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  19. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. It's one o'clock ________________.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. David sat on the ________________.
  24. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. spring — the season
  4. perch — for a bird
  5. ball — a great time
  6. perch — for a bird
  7. sharp — clever
  8. capital — money
  9. spring — a coil
  10. spring — of water
  11. plane — an aircraft
  12. ball — a dance
  13. swing — music
  14. cold — an illness
  15. ball — a round shape
  16. plane — in geometry
  17. plane — a tool
  18. perch — the fish
  19. sharp — with an edge
  20. cold — not warm
  21. sharp — exactly
  22. capital — a city
  23. swing — to play on
  24. swing — in golf

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