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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 116 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. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  3. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  4. The King held a masked ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  7. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  12. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  15. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  16. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  17. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  18. The ________________ took off on time.
  19. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  20. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  21. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  22. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  23. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  24. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. shower — a meteor shower
  3. prune — to trim
  4. ball — a dance
  5. cold — an illness
  6. scale — in music
  7. content — happy
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. scale — size or range
  10. cold — not warm
  11. shower — to wash
  12. shower — rain
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. prune — to trim
  15. scale — for weighing
  16. plane — a tool
  17. prune — the fruit
  18. plane — an aircraft
  19. ball — a round shape
  20. band — a ring
  21. plane — in geometry
  22. ball — a great time
  23. band — a music group
  24. band — a rubber band

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