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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: fall · march · shower · face · clip · capital · cap · fork

  1. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  4. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  7. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  8. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  9. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  10. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  11. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  12. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  17. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  20. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  21. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  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. shower — rain
  2. capital — a city
  3. fall — to drop
  4. cap — a hat
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. fall — the season
  7. cap — a lid
  8. fork — to eat with
  9. shower — a meteor shower
  10. fork — a garden tool
  11. face — part of the head
  12. face — to confront
  13. shower — to wash
  14. march — music
  15. clip — for paper
  16. face — to point toward
  17. fork — in a road
  18. clip — a video
  19. fall — to drop
  20. march — the month
  21. cap — of ice
  22. clip — to cut
  23. march — the month
  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