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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. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  2. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  3. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. The tickets are free of ________________.
  8. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  11. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  12. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  15. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  19. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  20. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  21. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a leader
  2. content — the amount
  3. face — part of the head
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. capital — money
  7. charge — a price
  8. charge — in control
  9. content — happy
  10. fork — in a road
  11. charge — electricity
  12. chair — a professorship
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. face — to confront
  15. face — to point toward
  16. capital — a city
  17. cold — an illness
  18. fork — a garden tool
  19. wind — moving air
  20. fork — to eat with
  21. chair — to sit on
  22. cold — not warm
  23. wind — moving air
  24. content — videos and posts

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