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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 120 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. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  3. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  4. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  10. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. Did you ________________ the meat?
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  15. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  16. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  17. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  18. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  21. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  22. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  23. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  24. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. season — of the year
  3. wound — an injury
  4. patient — calm and waiting
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. face — to confront
  8. cold — an illness
  9. face — part of the head
  10. bass — the instrument
  11. content — the amount
  12. season — to add flavour
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. patient — a sick person
  15. trunk — of a tree
  16. face — to point toward
  17. season — in sport
  18. trunk — of an elephant
  19. cold — not warm
  20. trunk — of a car
  21. wound — an injury
  22. bass — the fish
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. bass — low music

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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