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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. My mare is ________________ in color.
  2. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  3. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  4. There's no middle ________________.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  9. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  14. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  15. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  18. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  19. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  22. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. This piece is in a major ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bay — a horse colour
  2. content — the amount
  3. bay — to keep at bay
  4. ground — a position
  5. content — happy
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. capital — a city
  8. ground — the earth
  9. key — for a lock
  10. shower — rain
  11. content — videos and posts
  12. cold — not warm
  13. ground — crushed
  14. bay — a part of the sea
  15. patient — calm and waiting
  16. cold — an illness
  17. shower — a meteor shower
  18. key — the most important part
  19. patient — a sick person
  20. capital — money
  21. patient — a sick person
  22. shower — to wash
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. key — in music

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