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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. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  4. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  7. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  12. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  13. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  14. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  15. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  16. That must've been a ________________.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. When are we going to ________________?
  24. When was this ________________ built?

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. land — a country
  3. content — the amount
  4. trunk — of a car
  5. cold — not warm
  6. trunk — of a tree
  7. pitch — a sales talk
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. pitch — a sports field
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. pitch — completely
  12. temple — a place of worship
  13. rush — to hurry
  14. trunk — of an elephant
  15. rush — hurry
  16. rush — a thrill
  17. clip — to cut
  18. content — happy
  19. clip — a video
  20. clip — for paper
  21. temple — side of the head
  22. cold — an illness
  23. land — to come down
  24. temple — a place of worship

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