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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 116 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: chair · cold · rush · capital · degree · last · chip · cap

  1. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  2. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  5. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  9. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. False peace will not ________________.
  19. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  20. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  21. That must've been a ________________.
  22. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  23. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. last — finally
  2. last — final
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. chair — a professorship
  5. cap — a lid
  6. capital — money
  7. cold — an illness
  8. cap — a hat
  9. chip — to eat
  10. cold — not warm
  11. chip — in a computer
  12. degree — an amount
  13. degree — from a university
  14. chair — a leader
  15. degree — temperature
  16. chair — to sit on
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. last — to go on
  19. rush — hurry
  20. rush — to hurry
  21. rush — a thrill
  22. chip — for betting
  23. cap — of ice
  24. capital — a city

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