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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 120 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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. When was this ________________ built?
  6. The King held a masked ________________.
  7. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. He was locked up in a ________________.
  10. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  11. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  14. Have you met the new head ________________?
  15. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  16. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  20. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. We had a fire ________________ at school today.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. content — happy
  3. temple — a place of worship
  4. field — farmland
  5. temple — a place of worship
  6. ball — a dance
  7. ball — a great time
  8. content — the amount
  9. cell — in a prison
  10. cell — a phone
  11. coach — pulled by horses
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. ball — a round shape
  14. coach — a trainer
  15. cell — in biology
  16. drill — the tool
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. cold — not warm
  19. coach — a trainer
  20. temple — side of the head
  21. field — for sport
  22. drill — army training
  23. field — a subject
  24. drill — a practice

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