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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: cold · last · scale · capital · kid · club · racket · spring

  1. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  7. False peace will not ________________.
  8. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  9. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  20. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  21. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  22. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  23. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — money
  2. kid — to tease
  3. last — final
  4. cold — not warm
  5. cold — an illness
  6. capital — a city
  7. last — to go on
  8. club — a group
  9. club — for dancing
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. scale — size or range
  12. spring — of water
  13. capital — a big letter
  14. spring — the season
  15. spring — a coil
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. racket — for tennis
  18. kid — child
  19. scale — for weighing
  20. racket — for tennis
  21. club — for golf
  22. scale — in music
  23. racket — a loud noise
  24. last — finally

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