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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. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  2. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  3. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  4. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  11. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  14. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  15. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  18. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  19. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  20. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  21. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  22. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. She had a strange look on her ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rule — a law
  2. row — to paddle
  3. content — videos and posts
  4. rule — government
  5. capital — a city
  6. rule — to rule out
  7. capital — money
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. face — to point toward
  11. stem — of a plant
  12. cold — an illness
  13. trunk — of a tree
  14. capital — a big letter
  15. stem — a stem cell
  16. cold — not warm
  17. face — to confront
  18. content — happy
  19. stem — to come from
  20. trunk — of an elephant
  21. trunk — of a car
  22. row — a line
  23. content — the amount
  24. face — part of the head

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