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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: prune · bowl · rule · cold · content · kid · capital · march

  1. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  10. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  11. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  12. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  13. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  16. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  17. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  18. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  19. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  20. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  21. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  22. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. capital — money
  3. content — videos and posts
  4. kid — to tease
  5. prune — to trim
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. cold — not warm
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. bowl — to roll
  10. capital — a city
  11. march — the month
  12. prune — the fruit
  13. march — the month
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. content — happy
  16. bowl — a football final
  17. march — music
  18. prune — to trim
  19. bowl — a dish
  20. rule — to rule out
  21. rule — a law
  22. rule — government
  23. content — the amount
  24. cold — an illness

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