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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. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  2. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  5. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  6. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  7. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  8. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  9. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  10. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  11. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  14. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. When was this ________________ built?
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  23. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  24. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.

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

Answer key

  1. temple — side of the head
  2. prune — to trim
  3. cold — not warm
  4. squash — the vegetable
  5. temple — a place of worship
  6. fan — a supporter
  7. spring — of water
  8. prune — the fruit
  9. content — videos and posts
  10. prune — to trim
  11. squash — to crush
  12. content — the amount
  13. fan — to cool the air
  14. squash — the sport
  15. file — a document
  16. spring — the season
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. file — a line of people
  19. spring — a coil
  20. temple — a place of worship
  21. cold — an illness
  22. file — a tool
  23. content — happy
  24. fan — a supporter

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