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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. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. When are we going to ________________?
  5. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  6. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. False peace will not ________________.
  10. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  11. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  14. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  15. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  16. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  17. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  18. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  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. spring — a coil
  2. last — finally
  3. chest — a box
  4. land — to come down
  5. band — a rubber band
  6. band — a ring
  7. spring — the season
  8. content — the amount
  9. last — to go on
  10. perch — the fish
  11. chest — of your body
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. last — final
  14. perch — for a bird
  15. content — happy
  16. capital — money
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. chest — of your body
  19. land — a country
  20. land — ground
  21. content — videos and posts
  22. capital — a city
  23. band — a music group
  24. spring — of water

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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