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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: cold · wound · last · jam · stand · capital · content · pitch

  1. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  6. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  10. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  11. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  14. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  15. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  18. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  19. I can't ________________ this cold.
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. False peace will not ________________.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. jam — in traffic
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. cold — an illness
  5. jam — to spread on bread
  6. wound — an injury
  7. capital — money
  8. content — happy
  9. stand — on your feet
  10. stand — for spectators
  11. capital — a big letter
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. last — final
  14. pitch — completely
  15. jam — a tight spot
  16. cold — not warm
  17. wound — an injury
  18. pitch — a sports field
  19. stand — to bear
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. last — to go on
  22. capital — a city
  23. pitch — a sales talk
  24. last — finally

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