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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. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  2. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  3. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  4. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  5. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  8. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  9. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  16. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  17. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  21. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. Have you settled on a ________________?
  24. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a quarrel
  2. drill — army training
  3. date — the fruit
  4. branch — a division
  5. branch — of a tree
  6. land — a country
  7. date — on the calendar
  8. board — a committee
  9. content — the amount
  10. land — to come down
  11. board — to get on
  12. row — a line
  13. cold — an illness
  14. land — ground
  15. drill — the tool
  16. content — happy
  17. drill — a practice
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. row — to paddle
  20. board — a flat piece
  21. branch — of a bank
  22. cold — not warm
  23. date — on the calendar
  24. content — videos and posts

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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