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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.

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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: drill · content · last · tear · kid · fan · capital · squash

  1. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  2. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  3. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  4. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  5. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  6. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. False peace will not ________________.
  9. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  10. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  11. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  14. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  19. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  20. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. squash — the vegetable
  4. tear — from crying
  5. last — final
  6. content — videos and posts
  7. capital — money
  8. last — to go on
  9. fan — a supporter
  10. kid — to tease
  11. content — happy
  12. tear — to rip
  13. squash — the sport
  14. fan — to cool the air
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. capital — a city
  18. drill — army training
  19. drill — the tool
  20. last — finally
  21. content — the amount
  22. drill — a practice
  23. kid — child
  24. squash — to crush

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