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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: cell · kid · perch · last · content · rash · wake · capital

  1. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  3. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  4. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  5. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  6. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  7. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. False peace will not ________________.
  10. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  11. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  14. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  15. Don't do anything ________________.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  19. He was locked up in a ________________.
  20. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  21. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  22. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. rash — a series
  4. wake — before a funeral
  5. last — final
  6. content — happy
  7. cell — in biology
  8. kid — to tease
  9. last — to go on
  10. cell — a phone
  11. capital — a big letter
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. content — the amount
  14. wake — to stop sleeping
  15. rash — hasty
  16. kid — child
  17. capital — money
  18. rash — on the skin
  19. cell — in a prison
  20. last — finally
  21. perch — for a bird
  22. perch — the fish
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. wake — a trail

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