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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. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  2. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  4. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  5. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  6. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  9. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  10. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  11. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  12. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  13. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  14. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  15. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  16. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  17. False peace will not ________________.
  18. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  22. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. spring — the season
  3. mine — an explosive
  4. trunk — of an elephant
  5. content — videos and posts
  6. trunk — of a car
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. mine — for digging
  9. capital — a city
  10. fan — a supporter
  11. deal — a big deal
  12. deal — an agreement
  13. trunk — of a tree
  14. deal — to handle
  15. fan — to cool the air
  16. capital — money
  17. last — to go on
  18. content — happy
  19. spring — of water
  20. spring — a coil
  21. mine — belonging to me
  22. last — final
  23. content — the amount
  24. last — finally

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