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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: wind · content · capital · bark · plane · tube · bat · pop

  1. You don't need to ________________ round.
  2. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. I'll be taking the ________________.
  5. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  10. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  11. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. We're almost out of ________________.
  14. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  15. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  16. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  17. The ________________ took off on time.
  18. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  19. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  20. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  21. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  22. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  23. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. pop — to visit
  2. bark — to shout
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. tube — the underground
  5. tube — in a tire
  6. bat — the animal
  7. bark — of a tree
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. pop — music
  10. wind — to turn a key
  11. plane — in geometry
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. pop — soda
  14. content — the amount
  15. capital — money
  16. wind — moving air
  17. plane — an aircraft
  18. content — happy
  19. wind — moving air
  20. tube — a container
  21. capital — a city
  22. plane — a tool
  23. bark — a dog's sound
  24. bat — for baseball

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