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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  4. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  8. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  9. False peace will not ________________.
  10. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  11. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. My mare is ________________ in color.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  19. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. degree — an amount
  3. content — videos and posts
  4. rule — government
  5. shower — to wash
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. last — final
  8. rule — to rule out
  9. last — to go on
  10. content — happy
  11. bay — a part of the sea
  12. degree — from a university
  13. last — finally
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. bay — a horse colour
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. degree — temperature
  18. bay — to keep at bay
  19. rule — a law
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. content — the amount
  22. bat — the animal
  23. shower — rain
  24. cold — an illness

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