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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: capital · spell · racket · shower · saw · net · drill · cold

  1. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  4. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  5. How do you ________________ your surname?
  6. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  7. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  10. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  11. She's very handy with a ________________.
  12. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. He works in a ________________ mill.
  17. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  18. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  23. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. capital — money
  3. saw — past of 'see'
  4. drill — army training
  5. spell — letters
  6. racket — for tennis
  7. net — in sport
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. spell — magic
  10. racket — for tennis
  11. saw — the tool
  12. drill — the tool
  13. capital — a city
  14. cold — not warm
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. saw — the tool
  17. racket — a loud noise
  18. net — for catching
  19. spell — a short time
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. cold — an illness
  22. shower — to wash
  23. drill — a practice
  24. shower — rain

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