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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. The ________________ went through the wall.
  6. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  7. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  8. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  11. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  12. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  13. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  14. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  15. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  16. The ________________ took off on time.
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  24. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. land — a country
  3. content — the amount
  4. cold — an illness
  5. nail — for a hammer
  6. plane — in geometry
  7. nail — on a finger
  8. nail — for a hammer
  9. land — ground
  10. march — music
  11. march — the month
  12. mine — belonging to me
  13. mine — an explosive
  14. march — the month
  15. chair — a professorship
  16. plane — an aircraft
  17. land — to come down
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. chair — a leader
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. chair — to sit on
  22. cold — not warm
  23. mine — for digging
  24. plane — a tool

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