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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: content · pit · cold · roll · last · capital · pound · tear

  1. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  2. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  3. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  4. We're on a ________________ here.
  5. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  6. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  7. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  10. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  11. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  12. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  13. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  14. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  15. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  16. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  17. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  18. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  19. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. False peace will not ________________.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. pit — a fruit stone
  2. tear — from crying
  3. pound — a weight
  4. roll — on a roll
  5. content — videos and posts
  6. last — finally
  7. pit — a hole
  8. cold — an illness
  9. roll — a cake
  10. pound — to hit hard
  11. pound — for dogs
  12. tear — from crying
  13. capital — money
  14. content — the amount
  15. last — final
  16. tear — to rip
  17. pit — in a race
  18. roll — a list
  19. content — happy
  20. cold — not warm
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. last — to go on
  24. capital — a city

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