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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. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  4. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  7. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  10. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  11. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. When was this ________________ built?
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. lean — to rest against
  2. degree — an amount
  3. row — to paddle
  4. straw — dry grass
  5. field — a subject
  6. content — happy
  7. lean — to bend
  8. content — the amount
  9. temple — a place of worship
  10. content — videos and posts
  11. lean — thin
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. cold — not warm
  14. temple — side of the head
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. row — a line
  18. field — farmland
  19. degree — from a university
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. cold — an illness
  22. temple — a place of worship
  23. field — for sport
  24. degree — temperature

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