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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.

Words on the sheet
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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: shower · mark · cold · hand · capital · rule · club · spell

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  3. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  4. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. How do you ________________ your surname?
  8. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  16. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  17. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  18. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  23. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  24. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. spell — a short time
  3. club — for golf
  4. mark — to pay attention
  5. hand — in cards
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. spell — letters
  8. hand — part of the body
  9. shower — to wash
  10. cold — an illness
  11. mark — a grade
  12. hand — help
  13. capital — a city
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. club — for dancing
  16. mark — a trace
  17. rule — to rule out
  18. rule — a law
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. shower — rain
  21. capital — money
  22. rule — government
  23. spell — magic
  24. club — a group

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