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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: stand · kid · wound · lean · capital · hand · toast · cap

  1. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  6. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  7. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  8. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  9. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  14. I can't ________________ this cold.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  17. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  19. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  20. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  21. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. toast — bread
  2. capital — a city
  3. wound — an injury
  4. kid — child
  5. stand — on your feet
  6. toast — the most admired
  7. cap — a hat
  8. cap — a lid
  9. lean — to bend
  10. hand — help
  11. capital — money
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. toast — a drink to someone
  14. stand — to bear
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. lean — thin
  17. wound — past of 'wind'
  18. kid — to tease
  19. stand — for spectators
  20. lean — to rest against
  21. cap — of ice
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. wound — an injury
  24. hand — in cards

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