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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: cold · fall · content · wake · capital · wound · object · hide

  1. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  2. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  5. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  6. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  7. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  8. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  11. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  14. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  15. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  16. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  20. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  21. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  22. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  23. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  24. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wake — before a funeral
  2. content — the amount
  3. capital — a city
  4. wake — a trail
  5. wound — an injury
  6. content — happy
  7. object — to protest
  8. hide — to keep secret
  9. cold — not warm
  10. wake — to stop sleeping
  11. hide — animal skin
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. fall — to drop
  14. object — a thing
  15. wound — an injury
  16. hide — to keep secret
  17. capital — money
  18. cold — an illness
  19. fall — to drop
  20. fall — the season
  21. wound — past of 'wind'
  22. object — an aim
  23. capital — a big letter
  24. content — videos and posts

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