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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  11. Don't do anything ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  14. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  15. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  16. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  17. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  20. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  21. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. board — to get on
  3. capital — a city
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. rash — a series
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. spring — a coil
  8. row — a line
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. board — a committee
  11. rash — hasty
  12. cold — an illness
  13. content — happy
  14. present — there
  15. content — videos and posts
  16. board — a flat piece
  17. present — the time now
  18. capital — money
  19. present — a gift
  20. spring — the season
  21. rash — on the skin
  22. spring — of water
  23. content — the amount
  24. row — to paddle

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