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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: chair · drill · file · kid · object · wake · capital · rest

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  7. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  8. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  9. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  10. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  11. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  17. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  18. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  19. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  20. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  21. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  22. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  23. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  24. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. chair — a leader
  3. capital — a city
  4. object — to protest
  5. capital — money
  6. rest — what's left
  7. drill — a practice
  8. chair — to sit on
  9. drill — army training
  10. chair — a professorship
  11. object — an aim
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. kid — child
  14. file — a document
  15. file — a line of people
  16. rest — a break
  17. rest — what's left
  18. object — a thing
  19. wake — to stop sleeping
  20. wake — before a funeral
  21. file — a tool
  22. drill — the tool
  23. wake — a trail
  24. capital — a big letter

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