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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 · fall · rush · land · pitch · court · capital · rest

  1. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  4. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  5. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  6. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  7. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  8. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  20. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  23. That must've been a ________________.
  24. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.

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

Answer key

  1. rest — what's left
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. rush — to hurry
  4. rest — a break
  5. land — a country
  6. court — of law
  7. pitch — a sports field
  8. fall — the season
  9. court — of a king
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. capital — a city
  12. cold — not warm
  13. cold — an illness
  14. capital — money
  15. rest — what's left
  16. land — to come down
  17. fall — to drop
  18. court — for sport
  19. rush — hurry
  20. fall — to drop
  21. land — ground
  22. pitch — completely
  23. rush — a thrill
  24. pitch — a sales talk

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