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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: cold · cap · arm · game · tear · capital · spell · club

  1. That was a fun ________________.
  2. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  8. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  9. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  12. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  13. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  14. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  15. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  16. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  20. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  21. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. My father caught me by the ________________.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a match
  2. spell — letters
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. cold — an illness
  5. club — for dancing
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. tear — from crying
  8. tear — from crying
  9. arm — part of the body
  10. tear — to rip
  11. game — wild animals
  12. cap — a hat
  13. spell — magic
  14. arm — a part of something
  15. club — for golf
  16. spell — a short time
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. cold — not warm
  19. cap — a lid
  20. club — a group
  21. cap — of ice
  22. capital — a city
  23. arm — part of the body
  24. capital — money

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