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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: last · cold · snap · root · chest · capital · ground · wound

  1. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  4. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  5. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  6. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  7. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  15. False peace will not ________________.
  16. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  17. There's no middle ________________.
  18. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  19. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  20. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  21. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — a box
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. last — finally
  4. wound — past of 'wind'
  5. snap — to speak sharply
  6. ground — the earth
  7. last — final
  8. capital — money
  9. chest — of your body
  10. ground — crushed
  11. wound — an injury
  12. root — of a word
  13. cold — an illness
  14. snap — to snap out of it
  15. last — to go on
  16. wound — an injury
  17. ground — a position
  18. root — of a plant
  19. chest — of your body
  20. snap — to click
  21. root — the cause
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. cold — not warm
  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