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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: face · ground · mark · wake · rest · cold · land · capital

  1. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  6. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  7. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  8. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  9. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  12. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  13. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  14. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  23. There's no middle ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — crushed
  2. cold — an illness
  3. land — ground
  4. cold — not warm
  5. mark — to pay attention
  6. ground — the earth
  7. rest — what's left
  8. rest — what's left
  9. face — to point toward
  10. land — to come down
  11. wake — before a funeral
  12. mark — a grade
  13. face — to confront
  14. mark — a trace
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. wake — a trail
  17. capital — money
  18. wake — to stop sleeping
  19. capital — a city
  20. face — part of the head
  21. land — a country
  22. rest — a break
  23. ground — a position
  24. cold — the Cold War

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