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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: chest · march · prune · game · fan · cold · toast · capital

  1. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  8. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  9. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  10. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  20. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  23. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  24. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. toast — a drink to someone
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. game — a match
  5. march — music
  6. cold — not warm
  7. prune — to trim
  8. fan — a supporter
  9. prune — to trim
  10. fan — a supporter
  11. chest — a box
  12. capital — money
  13. capital — a city
  14. toast — bread
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. game — wild animals
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. chest — of your body
  19. fan — to cool the air
  20. prune — the fruit
  21. cold — an illness
  22. toast — the most admired
  23. chest — of your body
  24. march — the month

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