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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: track · sharp · capital · cold · fan · bat · ball · mate

  1. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  2. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. The King held a masked ________________.
  7. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. Have you found your soul ________________?
  11. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  12. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  15. It's one o'clock ________________.
  16. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  17. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  18. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  19. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  20. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  21. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  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. ball — a great time
  2. bat — in an idiom
  3. cold — not warm
  4. track — to keep track
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. ball — a dance
  7. fan — a supporter
  8. cold — an illness
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. mate — a partner
  11. mate — a friend
  12. track — a path
  13. bat — the animal
  14. track — a song
  15. sharp — exactly
  16. mate — to breed
  17. sharp — clever
  18. sharp — with an edge
  19. ball — a round shape
  20. fan — to cool the air
  21. fan — a supporter
  22. capital — a city
  23. cold — the Cold War
  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