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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. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. You don't need to ________________ round.
  6. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  7. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  8. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  11. He was locked up in a ________________.
  12. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  13. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  14. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  15. We're almost out of ________________.
  16. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. march — music
  2. cold — not warm
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. pop — to visit
  6. pop — music
  7. lie — to recline
  8. march — the month
  9. content — happy
  10. lie — an untruth
  11. cell — in a prison
  12. cell — a phone
  13. cell — in biology
  14. bass — the instrument
  15. pop — soda
  16. march — the month
  17. cold — an illness
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. lie — an untruth
  20. bat — the animal
  21. bass — low music
  22. content — the amount
  23. bass — the fish
  24. bat — for baseball

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