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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  5. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  6. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  11. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  12. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  13. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  14. The King held a masked ________________.
  15. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  16. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  19. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  20. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  21. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  24. She had a strange look on her ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. race — a contest
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. pitch — a sports field
  5. perch — the fish
  6. ball — a great time
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. pitch — completely
  9. cold — not warm
  10. band — a music group
  11. face — to confront
  12. race — humankind
  13. perch — for a bird
  14. ball — a dance
  15. ball — a round shape
  16. pitch — a sales talk
  17. content — the amount
  18. band — a ring
  19. race — the arms race
  20. face — to point toward
  21. band — a rubber band
  22. cold — an illness
  23. perch — for a bird
  24. face — part of the head

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