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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  5. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  10. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  11. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  12. There's no middle ________________.
  13. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  16. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  17. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  18. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  19. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  20. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  21. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  22. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  23. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  24. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. ground — crushed
  3. wind — moving air
  4. bass — low music
  5. content — videos and posts
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. mine — for digging
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. mine — an explosive
  10. content — happy
  11. prune — to trim
  12. ground — a position
  13. prune — the fruit
  14. cold — not warm
  15. mine — belonging to me
  16. ground — the earth
  17. deal — to handle
  18. prune — to trim
  19. wind — moving air
  20. content — the amount
  21. deal — an agreement
  22. bass — the instrument
  23. bass — the fish
  24. deal — a big deal

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