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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: cold · kid · net · date · chest · mark · land · capital

  1. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  5. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  6. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  7. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  8. Have you settled on a ________________?
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  11. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  12. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  13. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  14. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  19. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  22. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  23. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  24. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  3. land — to come down
  4. mark — a trace
  5. mark — a grade
  6. chest — a box
  7. mark — to pay attention
  8. date — on the calendar
  9. cold — not warm
  10. net — for catching
  11. capital — a big letter
  12. land — ground
  13. chest — of your body
  14. net — in sport
  15. cold — an illness
  16. capital — money
  17. chest — of your body
  18. land — a country
  19. date — the fruit
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. capital — a city
  22. date — on the calendar
  23. net — after costs
  24. kid — to tease

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