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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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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 · fall · coach · bowl · band · spell · race · cell

  1. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  2. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  7. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  8. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  9. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  10. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  11. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  12. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  13. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  14. How do you ________________ your surname?
  15. Have you met the new head ________________?
  16. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  19. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  20. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  21. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  22. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a football final
  2. race — a contest
  3. capital — money
  4. fall — to drop
  5. capital — a city
  6. band — a rubber band
  7. bowl — to roll
  8. coach — pulled by horses
  9. cell — in biology
  10. band — a ring
  11. spell — magic
  12. spell — a short time
  13. capital — a big letter
  14. spell — letters
  15. coach — a trainer
  16. coach — a trainer
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. bowl — a dish
  19. fall — the season
  20. cell — a phone
  21. fall — to drop
  22. race — the arms race
  23. race — humankind
  24. band — a music group

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