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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. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  2. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  5. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  6. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  7. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  10. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  11. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  12. He was locked up in a ________________.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  15. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  18. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  21. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. Have you met the new head ________________?
  24. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — money
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. content — happy
  4. fork — a garden tool
  5. content — the amount
  6. content — videos and posts
  7. row — a line
  8. spring — the season
  9. fork — in a road
  10. root — of a plant
  11. cell — a phone
  12. cell — in a prison
  13. capital — a city
  14. coach — a trainer
  15. fork — to eat with
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. cell — in biology
  18. root — the cause
  19. spring — a coil
  20. coach — pulled by horses
  21. root — of a word
  22. row — to paddle
  23. coach — a trainer
  24. spring — of water

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