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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.

Make a worksheet

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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  3. The ball is in your ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  6. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  7. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  8. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  9. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. When was this ________________ built?
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. temple — a place of worship
  3. court — for sport
  4. cold — not warm
  5. content — the amount
  6. capital — a city
  7. perch — the fish
  8. court — of a king
  9. perch — for a bird
  10. cold — an illness
  11. temple — a place of worship
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. temple — side of the head
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. court — of law
  17. capital — money
  18. perch — for a bird

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