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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: shower · capital · pound · vault · chair · cap · fall · spring

  1. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  2. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  3. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  6. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  7. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  8. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  9. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  12. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  13. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  19. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  20. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  21. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  22. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  23. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cap — a hat
  2. pound — a weight
  3. vault — in gymnastics
  4. spring — a coil
  5. fall — to drop
  6. chair — to sit on
  7. pound — to hit hard
  8. spring — of water
  9. capital — a city
  10. shower — to wash
  11. vault — a safe
  12. chair — a leader
  13. pound — for dogs
  14. capital — money
  15. shower — rain
  16. cap — a lid
  17. spring — the season
  18. chair — a professorship
  19. vault — an arched ceiling
  20. capital — a big letter
  21. cap — of ice
  22. fall — to drop
  23. fall — the season
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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