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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. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  4. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  11. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  14. False peace will not ________________.
  15. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  16. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  17. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  18. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  19. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  20. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  21. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  22. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. rest — what's left
  4. leaves — of a tree
  5. content — happy
  6. cold — not warm
  7. land — to come down
  8. leaves — lets stay
  9. land — ground
  10. content — videos and posts
  11. snap — to click
  12. content — the amount
  13. rest — what's left
  14. last — to go on
  15. last — final
  16. wind — moving air
  17. leaves — to go away
  18. last — finally
  19. wind — to turn a key
  20. snap — to snap out of it
  21. snap — to speak sharply
  22. rest — a break
  23. land — a country
  24. cold — an illness

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