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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. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  2. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  4. There's no middle ________________.
  5. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  6. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. I can't ________________ this cold.
  9. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  10. That was a fun ________________.
  11. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  16. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  19. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  20. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  24. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — crushed
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. prune — to trim
  4. ground — a position
  5. band — a rubber band
  6. band — a music group
  7. spring — a coil
  8. stand — to bear
  9. stand — for spectators
  10. game — a match
  11. stand — on your feet
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. spring — the season
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. prune — the fruit
  16. prune — to trim
  17. spring — of water
  18. band — a ring
  19. ground — the earth
  20. content — the amount
  21. game — wild animals
  22. capital — money
  23. capital — a city
  24. content — happy

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