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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 120 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. That was a fun ________________.
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  6. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  7. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  10. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  11. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  12. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  13. Did you ________________ the meat?
  14. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  15. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  16. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  23. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  24. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a match
  2. capital — money
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. capital — a city
  5. cap — a lid
  6. content — the amount
  7. fall — the season
  8. content — happy
  9. tear — from crying
  10. game — a kind of play
  11. cap — of ice
  12. wound — past of 'wind'
  13. season — to add flavour
  14. fall — to drop
  15. season — in sport
  16. wound — an injury
  17. tear — to rip
  18. season — of the year
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. wound — an injury
  21. game — wild animals
  22. tear — from crying
  23. fall — to drop
  24. cap — a hat

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