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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: land · capital · rule · cold · wound · wake · straw · pitch

  1. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  5. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  6. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  7. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  8. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  12. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  16. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  24. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.

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

Answer key

  1. rule — government
  2. capital — money
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. wound — past of 'wind'
  5. pitch — a sales talk
  6. wound — an injury
  7. pitch — a sports field
  8. straw — a straw man
  9. land — ground
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. pitch — completely
  12. rule — to rule out
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. cold — not warm
  15. wake — a trail
  16. wake — before a funeral
  17. cold — an illness
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. wound — an injury
  20. land — to come down
  21. rule — a law
  22. land — a country
  23. capital — a city
  24. wake — to stop sleeping

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