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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 116 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: kid · rest · capital · content · file · straw · face · squash

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  3. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  4. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  9. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  14. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  15. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  20. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. rest — what's left
  3. face — part of the head
  4. rest — a break
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. capital — a city
  7. kid — to tease
  8. squash — the sport
  9. straw — a straw man
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. rest — what's left
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. squash — to crush
  14. squash — the vegetable
  15. capital — money
  16. file — a tool
  17. kid — child
  18. file — a document
  19. face — to point toward
  20. content — the amount
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. file — a line of people
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. face — to confront

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