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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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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: fork · swing · wound · capital · content · snap · chair · cap

  1. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  2. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  3. David sat on the ________________.
  4. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  5. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  6. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  7. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  8. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  13. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  16. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  17. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  18. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  19. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  22. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  23. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — to sit on
  2. chair — a professorship
  3. swing — to play on
  4. chair — a leader
  5. swing — music
  6. fork — in a road
  7. cap — a lid
  8. fork — a garden tool
  9. content — happy
  10. cap — a hat
  11. wound — an injury
  12. capital — a city
  13. capital — a big letter
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. wound — past of 'wind'
  16. swing — in golf
  17. fork — to eat with
  18. snap — to snap out of it
  19. content — the amount
  20. wound — an injury
  21. content — videos and posts
  22. cap — of ice
  23. snap — to click
  24. capital — money

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