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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 120 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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  6. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  9. The ________________ market has crashed.
  10. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  11. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  12. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. My father caught me by the ________________.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  22. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. lean — to bend
  3. capital — money
  4. bat — the animal
  5. stock — a soup base
  6. arm — part of the body
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. board — a committee
  9. stock — shares
  10. lean — to rest against
  11. stock — goods
  12. arm — a part of something
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. arm — part of the body
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. content — the amount
  18. capital — a city
  19. cold — not warm
  20. cold — an illness
  21. lean — thin
  22. board — a flat piece
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. board — to get on

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