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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. It's one o'clock ________________.
  2. Don't do anything ________________.
  3. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  4. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  5. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  6. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  7. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  8. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  9. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  10. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  11. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  12. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  13. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  14. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  20. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  21. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  24. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — exactly
  2. rash — hasty
  3. wound — past of 'wind'
  4. bore — to tire
  5. rash — on the skin
  6. mine — for digging
  7. rash — a series
  8. wound — an injury
  9. sharp — with an edge
  10. content — videos and posts
  11. wound — an injury
  12. bore — to drill
  13. band — a ring
  14. sharp — clever
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. cold — an illness
  17. content — happy
  18. cold — not warm
  19. content — the amount
  20. band — a music group
  21. bore — gave birth
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. band — a rubber band
  24. mine — belonging to me

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