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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. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  2. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  3. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  4. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  5. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  6. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  7. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  8. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  9. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  10. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  11. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  12. This piece is in a major ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  16. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  19. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  20. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  23. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  24. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for dancing
  2. row — a line
  3. mine — for digging
  4. club — for golf
  5. fan — a supporter
  6. content — the amount
  7. club — a group
  8. key — for a lock
  9. fan — to cool the air
  10. fan — a supporter
  11. row — to paddle
  12. key — in music
  13. cold — an illness
  14. cold — not warm
  15. mine — belonging to me
  16. face — to confront
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. key — the most important part
  19. face — part of the head
  20. row — a quarrel
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. face — to point toward
  23. content — happy
  24. content — videos and posts

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