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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: straw · content · patient · capital · wind · cell · spell · fall

  1. He was locked up in a ________________.
  2. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  3. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  4. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  7. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  10. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  13. How do you ________________ your surname?
  14. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  15. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  16. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  17. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  22. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  23. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  24. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.

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

Answer key

  1. cell — in a prison
  2. spell — a short time
  3. cell — a phone
  4. fall — the season
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. cell — in biology
  7. patient — a sick person
  8. wind — moving air
  9. straw — a straw man
  10. fall — to drop
  11. content — the amount
  12. wind — moving air
  13. spell — letters
  14. patient — a sick person
  15. fall — to drop
  16. wind — to turn a key
  17. patient — calm and waiting
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. capital — a city
  20. capital — money
  21. content — happy
  22. straw — dry grass
  23. spell — magic
  24. capital — a big letter

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