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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. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  13. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  21. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  22. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  24. Do you need a ________________ with that?

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

Answer key

  1. bat — for baseball
  2. tear — from crying
  3. fan — a supporter
  4. spring — of water
  5. hand — in cards
  6. capital — a city
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. content — the amount
  9. march — the month
  10. tear — to rip
  11. spring — a coil
  12. march — music
  13. fan — to cool the air
  14. bat — the animal
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. march — the month
  18. spring — the season
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. fan — a supporter
  21. content — happy
  22. tear — from crying
  23. capital — money
  24. hand — help

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