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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. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  3. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  4. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  5. False peace will not ________________.
  6. We're almost out of ________________.
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  10. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  11. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. You don't need to ________________ round.
  15. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  20. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  24. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. stem — of a plant
  3. stem — to come from
  4. stem — a stem cell
  5. last — to go on
  6. pop — soda
  7. hand — in cards
  8. land — a country
  9. drill — the tool
  10. last — finally
  11. land — ground
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. pop — to visit
  15. drill — a practice
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. pop — music
  18. cold — an illness
  19. hand — help
  20. content — happy
  21. land — to come down
  22. cold — not warm
  23. last — final
  24. drill — army training

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