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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. The King held a masked ________________.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  9. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  10. We're on a ________________ here.
  11. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  12. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  13. Did you ________________ the meat?
  14. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  15. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  18. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  19. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  20. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. ball — a dance
  3. content — happy
  4. bark — of a tree
  5. wind — moving air
  6. wind — moving air
  7. bark — to shout
  8. season — of the year
  9. hide — to keep secret
  10. roll — on a roll
  11. roll — a list
  12. wind — to turn a key
  13. season — to add flavour
  14. hide — animal skin
  15. bark — a dog's sound
  16. cold — an illness
  17. ball — a great time
  18. roll — a cake
  19. hide — to keep secret
  20. season — in sport
  21. content — the amount
  22. ball — a round shape
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. cold — the Cold War

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