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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. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  7. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  8. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  11. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  12. That must've been a ________________.
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  19. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  20. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  23. The ________________ took off on time.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rush — hurry
  2. capital — money
  3. file — a line of people
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. cold — an illness
  6. content — happy
  7. squash — the vegetable
  8. squash — the sport
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. drill — a practice
  11. rush — to hurry
  12. rush — a thrill
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. plane — in geometry
  15. capital — a city
  16. content — the amount
  17. file — a tool
  18. drill — the tool
  19. squash — to crush
  20. drill — army training
  21. file — a document
  22. plane — a tool
  23. plane — an aircraft
  24. cold — not warm

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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