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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. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  4. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. How do you ________________ your surname?
  7. Did you ________________ the meat?
  8. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  9. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  10. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  11. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  12. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  13. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  16. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  17. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  18. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  19. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  20. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  21. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  24. He was locked up in a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. vault — a safe
  2. content — happy
  3. cell — a phone
  4. band — a rubber band
  5. cold — an illness
  6. spell — letters
  7. season — to add flavour
  8. season — of the year
  9. stem — to come from
  10. spell — magic
  11. content — videos and posts
  12. vault — an arched ceiling
  13. content — the amount
  14. cold — not warm
  15. stem — a stem cell
  16. vault — in gymnastics
  17. band — a music group
  18. spell — a short time
  19. cell — in biology
  20. stem — of a plant
  21. band — a ring
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. season — in sport
  24. cell — in a prison

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