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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. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  4. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  10. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  11. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  12. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  17. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  18. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  19. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  22. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  23. It's one o'clock ________________.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — an explosive
  2. content — happy
  3. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  4. chest — a box
  5. kid — to tease
  6. content — videos and posts
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. drill — the tool
  10. sharp — with an edge
  11. drill — a practice
  12. chest — of your body
  13. cold — not warm
  14. root — the cause
  15. kid — child
  16. sharp — clever
  17. root — of a word
  18. chest — of your body
  19. content — the amount
  20. cold — an illness
  21. root — of a plant
  22. drill — army training
  23. sharp — exactly
  24. mine — for digging

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