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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: band · content · tear · cold · pit · capital

  1. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  5. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  9. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  16. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  17. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  18. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — money
  2. tear — from crying
  3. capital — a city
  4. pit — a fruit stone
  5. tear — to rip
  6. cold — not warm
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. pit — in a race
  9. band — a rubber band
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. content — videos and posts
  12. tear — from crying
  13. content — the amount
  14. cold — an illness
  15. content — happy
  16. pit — a hole
  17. band — a ring
  18. band — a music group

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