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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  5. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  6. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  9. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  10. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  11. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  12. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  13. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  16. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  17. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  18. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. He is an ace ________________.
  21. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. squash — the sport
  3. cold — an illness
  4. lash — an eyelash
  5. pitcher — a jug
  6. band — a rubber band
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. prune — to trim
  9. band — a music group
  10. squash — the vegetable
  11. pitcher — a jug
  12. prune — to trim
  13. shower — rain
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. lash — a whip stroke
  16. shower — to wash
  17. squash — to crush
  18. band — a ring
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. pitcher — in baseball
  21. prune — the fruit
  22. content — the amount
  23. lash — to lash out
  24. cold — not warm

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