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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. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  2. That must've been a ________________.
  3. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  4. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  12. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  13. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. When are we going to ________________?
  19. This piece is in a major ________________.
  20. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  23. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  24. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.

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

Answer key

  1. rush — hurry
  2. rush — a thrill
  3. bat — the animal
  4. fork — to eat with
  5. content — happy
  6. land — ground
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. fork — a garden tool
  9. cold — not warm
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. track — a path
  12. track — a song
  13. track — to keep track
  14. land — a country
  15. cold — an illness
  16. rush — to hurry
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. land — to come down
  19. key — in music
  20. key — for a lock
  21. content — the amount
  22. bat — in an idiom
  23. key — the most important part
  24. fork — in a road

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