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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 116 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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  5. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  9. Did you ________________ the button?
  10. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  11. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  15. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. cold — an illness
  3. content — happy
  4. bass — the fish
  5. fine — all right
  6. capital — money
  7. capital — a city
  8. bass — the instrument
  9. press — to push
  10. bass — low music
  11. press — a publisher
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. fine — high quality
  15. fine — a penalty
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. cold — not warm
  18. press — newspapers

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