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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  5. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  6. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  7. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  8. The ________________ went through the wall.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. That was ________________ to happen.
  11. Have you found your soul ________________?
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  16. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  17. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  18. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  19. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  20. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  21. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  24. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. wake — before a funeral
  3. cold — not warm
  4. root — of a plant
  5. mate — a friend
  6. root — the cause
  7. wake — a trail
  8. nail — for a hammer
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. bound — certain
  11. mate — a partner
  12. content — the amount
  13. tear — from crying
  14. cold — an illness
  15. tear — from crying
  16. root — of a word
  17. wake — to stop sleeping
  18. bound — obliged
  19. nail — for a hammer
  20. bound — tied together
  21. nail — on a finger
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. mate — to breed
  24. tear — to rip

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