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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: capital · stick · trunk · ground · shower · cold · roll · spring

  1. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  2. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  3. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  8. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  9. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  13. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  14. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  15. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. We're on a ________________ here.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. There's no middle ________________.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  24. Add some ________________ pepper to it.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — a meteor shower
  2. stick — a piece of wood
  3. trunk — of a car
  4. spring — a coil
  5. spring — the season
  6. shower — to wash
  7. trunk — of an elephant
  8. roll — a list
  9. ground — the earth
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. cold — an illness
  12. capital — a city
  13. stick — to attach or keep to
  14. stick — a piece of wood
  15. trunk — of a tree
  16. shower — rain
  17. roll — on a roll
  18. capital — money
  19. cold — not warm
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. ground — a position
  22. spring — of water
  23. roll — a cake
  24. ground — crushed

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