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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. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. The light ________________ burned out.
  9. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  15. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  16. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  19. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  20. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. I've got to change the light ________________.
  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. bat — the animal
  2. content — happy
  3. capital — a city
  4. wind — moving air
  5. capital — money
  6. bulb — of a plant
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. bulb — for light
  9. content — the amount
  10. clip — for paper
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. lie — an untruth
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. lie — to recline
  15. lie — an untruth
  16. scale — size or range
  17. clip — to cut
  18. wind — to turn a key
  19. scale — for weighing
  20. scale — in music
  21. wind — moving air
  22. clip — a video
  23. bulb — for light
  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