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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 water is too ________________.
  2. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  5. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  6. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  7. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  10. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  11. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  12. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  13. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  14. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  17. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  18. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  19. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  20. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. I'll be taking the ________________.
  23. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. chip — to eat
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. fall — to drop
  5. tube — a container
  6. bass — the instrument
  7. spring — of water
  8. content — happy
  9. content — the amount
  10. content — videos and posts
  11. bear — the animal
  12. fall — to drop
  13. fall — the season
  14. bass — low music
  15. spring — the season
  16. bear — the animal
  17. bass — the fish
  18. tube — in a tire
  19. chip — for betting
  20. chip — in a computer
  21. cold — an illness
  22. tube — the underground
  23. bear — to put up with
  24. spring — a coil

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