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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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Word bank
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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: shower · sharp · object · drill · plane · content · capital · tear

  1. It's one o'clock ________________.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  4. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  5. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  8. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  11. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  12. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  13. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  14. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. The ________________ took off on time.
  20. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  21. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  22. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — exactly
  2. content — happy
  3. drill — a practice
  4. tear — from crying
  5. drill — the tool
  6. tear — to rip
  7. object — a thing
  8. sharp — with an edge
  9. tear — from crying
  10. object — to protest
  11. plane — in geometry
  12. drill — army training
  13. plane — a tool
  14. content — the amount
  15. shower — rain
  16. object — an aim
  17. capital — a city
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. plane — an aircraft
  20. capital — a big letter
  21. sharp — clever
  22. shower — to wash
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. capital — money

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