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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. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. He was locked up in a ________________.
  5. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  9. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  10. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  11. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  12. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  15. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  16. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  17. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  18. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  19. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  22. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. wind — moving air
  3. snap — to click
  4. cell — in a prison
  5. scale — size or range
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. bark — to shout
  8. cell — in biology
  9. face — to point toward
  10. content — videos and posts
  11. snap — to snap out of it
  12. content — happy
  13. cold — not warm
  14. face — part of the head
  15. snap — to speak sharply
  16. wind — moving air
  17. bark — a dog's sound
  18. scale — in music
  19. scale — for weighing
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. cell — a phone
  22. face — to confront
  23. content — the amount
  24. bark — of a tree

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