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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. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  2. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  3. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  4. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  5. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  6. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  7. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  8. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  19. David sat on the ________________.
  20. Don't do anything ________________.
  21. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  22. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rash — on the skin
  2. rash — a series
  3. kid — child
  4. content — the amount
  5. swing — music
  6. content — happy
  7. swing — in golf
  8. mark — a grade
  9. kid — to tease
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. bat — the animal
  12. mark — to pay attention
  13. cold — not warm
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. face — to confront
  16. cold — an illness
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. face — to point toward
  19. swing — to play on
  20. rash — hasty
  21. face — part of the head
  22. mark — a trace
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. content — videos and posts

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