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

  1. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  4. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. We're almost out of ________________.
  8. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  9. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  13. Have you found your soul ________________?
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  23. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  24. You don't need to ________________ round.

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

Answer key

  1. content — videos and posts
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. march — music
  4. wax — in the ear
  5. capital — money
  6. cold — not warm
  7. pop — soda
  8. march — the month
  9. pop — music
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. content — the amount
  12. mate — to breed
  13. mate — a partner
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. wax — for sculpting
  16. cold — an illness
  17. mate — a friend
  18. march — the month
  19. capital — a city
  20. bat — the animal
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. content — happy
  23. wax — to grow
  24. pop — to visit

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