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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 120 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. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. The King held a masked ________________.
  11. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  14. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  17. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  18. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  19. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. Check the label for the sugar ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a round shape
  2. content — happy
  3. prune — to trim
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. ball — a great time
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. cold — an illness
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. ball — a dance
  11. drill — army training
  12. cold — not warm
  13. drill — the tool
  14. cue — for pool
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. cue — a signal
  17. prune — to trim
  18. drill — a practice
  19. wind — moving air
  20. bat — the animal
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. cue — a hint
  23. wind — moving air
  24. content — the amount

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