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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 120 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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Word bank
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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: hand · capital · face · content · fan · wake · saw · mine

  1. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  2. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  3. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. She's very handy with a ________________.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  8. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  9. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  10. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  11. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  15. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  18. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  19. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. He works in a ________________ mill.
  24. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. fan — to cool the air
  3. wake — before a funeral
  4. hand — in cards
  5. saw — the tool
  6. capital — money
  7. wake — a trail
  8. face — part of the head
  9. mine — for digging
  10. face — to point toward
  11. mine — an explosive
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. face — to confront
  15. fan — a supporter
  16. hand — help
  17. wake — to stop sleeping
  18. saw — past of 'see'
  19. content — happy
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. content — the amount
  22. capital — a city
  23. saw — the tool
  24. hand — part of the body

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