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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. This piece is in a major ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  8. The ball is in your ________________.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  11. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  12. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  13. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  14. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  15. He is an ace ________________.
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  22. False peace will not ________________.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.

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

Answer key

  1. key — in music
  2. cold — an illness
  3. cold — not warm
  4. clip — to cut
  5. chest — a box
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. content — happy
  8. court — for sport
  9. court — of a king
  10. court — of law
  11. key — the most important part
  12. chest — of your body
  13. key — for a lock
  14. last — finally
  15. pitcher — in baseball
  16. content — the amount
  17. last — final
  18. clip — for paper
  19. pitcher — a jug
  20. clip — a video
  21. pitcher — a jug
  22. last — to go on
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. chest — of your body

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