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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. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  2. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  5. It's one o'clock ________________.
  6. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  7. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  8. Have you found your soul ________________?
  9. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  13. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  14. There's no middle ________________.
  15. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  16. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  17. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  18. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  21. He was locked up in a ________________.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  24. Check the label for the sugar ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — with an edge
  2. sharp — clever
  3. cold — an illness
  4. cell — in biology
  5. sharp — exactly
  6. hand — help
  7. ground — the earth
  8. mate — a partner
  9. march — music
  10. cold — not warm
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. hand — in cards
  13. cell — a phone
  14. ground — a position
  15. march — the month
  16. ground — crushed
  17. march — the month
  18. mate — to breed
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. mate — a friend
  21. cell — in a prison
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. content — happy
  24. content — the amount

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