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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. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  5. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  6. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  7. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  8. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  9. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  14. Don't do anything ________________.
  15. He is an ace ________________.
  16. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  17. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  18. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  22. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  23. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  24. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. cap — a lid
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. lean — thin
  5. lean — to bend
  6. lean — to rest against
  7. content — the amount
  8. rash — a series
  9. content — videos and posts
  10. cold — not warm
  11. pitcher — a jug
  12. cold — an illness
  13. stem — of a plant
  14. rash — hasty
  15. pitcher — in baseball
  16. cap — of ice
  17. rash — on the skin
  18. stem — a stem cell
  19. hand — in cards
  20. hand — help
  21. pitcher — a jug
  22. stem — to come from
  23. cap — a hat
  24. hand — part of the 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