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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 116 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. The King held a masked ________________.
  3. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  4. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  7. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  8. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  9. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  10. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  11. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  14. False peace will not ________________.
  15. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  16. There's no middle ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  19. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  20. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  21. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  22. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. ball — a dance
  3. last — final
  4. ball — a great time
  5. cold — an illness
  6. wax — to grow
  7. ball — a round shape
  8. wax — for sculpting
  9. bark — a dog's sound
  10. bark — to shout
  11. ground — crushed
  12. content — the amount
  13. content — happy
  14. last — to go on
  15. last — finally
  16. ground — a position
  17. cold — not warm
  18. wax — in the ear
  19. bark — of a tree
  20. hide — to keep secret
  21. hide — to keep secret
  22. ground — the earth
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. hide — animal skin

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