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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. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  8. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  9. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The King held a masked ________________.
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. The ________________ market has crashed.
  14. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  15. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  24. Check the label for the sugar ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. ball — a great time
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. race — the arms race
  6. march — music
  7. stock — a soup base
  8. march — the month
  9. march — the month
  10. cold — an illness
  11. ball — a dance
  12. chest — of your body
  13. stock — shares
  14. stock — goods
  15. race — a contest
  16. chest — a box
  17. content — happy
  18. chest — of your body
  19. spring — a coil
  20. cold — not warm
  21. race — humankind
  22. spring — the season
  23. ball — a round shape
  24. content — the amount

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