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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. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  6. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  7. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  14. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  15. Have you found your soul ________________?
  16. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  23. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  24. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. scale — size or range
  3. hand — help
  4. capital — money
  5. face — part of the head
  6. scale — in music
  7. track — a song
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. mate — to breed
  10. cold — not warm
  11. content — the amount
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. content — happy
  14. face — to point toward
  15. mate — a partner
  16. face — to confront
  17. capital — a city
  18. track — to keep track
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. hand — in cards
  21. cold — an illness
  22. track — a path
  23. mate — a friend
  24. scale — for weighing

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