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

  1. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  10. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  15. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  18. The players ran onto the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. foot — a measure
  3. chest — of your body
  4. cold — not warm
  5. content — happy
  6. foot — the bottom
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. chest — of your body
  9. pitch — a sales talk
  10. foot — part of the body
  11. chest — a box
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. tear — to rip
  14. tear — from crying
  15. tear — from crying
  16. cold — an illness
  17. pitch — completely
  18. pitch — a sports field

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