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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. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  3. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  4. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  5. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  6. We're on a ________________ here.
  7. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  8. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  9. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  10. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  13. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  14. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  15. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  16. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  19. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  20. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  21. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  24. Have you met the new head ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. chair — a professorship
  3. bark — a dog's sound
  4. roll — a list
  5. chair — a leader
  6. roll — on a roll
  7. content — happy
  8. dip — a sauce
  9. roll — a cake
  10. dip — to dunk
  11. cold — an illness
  12. kick — a thrill
  13. coach — pulled by horses
  14. coach — a trainer
  15. content — videos and posts
  16. bark — to shout
  17. content — the amount
  18. bark — of a tree
  19. kick — in football
  20. chair — to sit on
  21. kick — with a leg
  22. cold — not warm
  23. dip — to sink
  24. coach — a trainer

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