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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  9. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  10. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  11. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  12. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  13. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. I've got to change the light ________________.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. The light ________________ burned out.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. land — ground
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. land — to come down
  6. wax — to grow
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. wax — for sculpting
  9. content — the amount
  10. perch — for a bird
  11. wax — in the ear
  12. bulb — of a plant
  13. perch — the fish
  14. cold — not warm
  15. cold — an illness
  16. bulb — for light
  17. land — a country
  18. bulb — for light

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