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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: fall · ground · face · kid · chair · bat · capital · mine

  1. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  2. There's no middle ________________.
  3. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  4. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  7. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  8. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  9. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  10. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  14. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  17. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to point toward
  2. ground — a position
  3. ground — crushed
  4. chair — a leader
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. mine — an explosive
  7. chair — to sit on
  8. mine — for digging
  9. face — to confront
  10. ground — the earth
  11. kid — to tease
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. chair — a professorship
  14. fall — to drop
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. face — part of the head
  17. mine — belonging to me
  18. capital — money
  19. capital — a city
  20. kid — child
  21. bat — the animal
  22. fall — to drop
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. fall — the season

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