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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. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  4. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  5. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  6. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  13. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  14. Have you met the new head ________________?
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  20. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  21. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  24. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. content — happy
  3. coach — a trainer
  4. row — to paddle
  5. face — to point toward
  6. face — part of the head
  7. cold — an illness
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. wind — moving air
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. craft — a handicraft
  13. capital — money
  14. coach — a trainer
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. coach — pulled by horses
  17. cold — not warm
  18. content — the amount
  19. craft — a skill
  20. craft — boats
  21. content — videos and posts
  22. capital — a city
  23. row — a line
  24. face — to confront

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