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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. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  4. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  5. You don't need to ________________ round.
  6. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  12. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  13. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  14. That was a fun ________________.
  15. We're almost out of ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  18. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  22. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  23. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. content — videos and posts
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. pop — music
  4. craft — a skill
  5. pop — to visit
  6. content — happy
  7. tear — from crying
  8. file — a line of people
  9. scale — for weighing
  10. game — wild animals
  11. scale — size or range
  12. craft — a handicraft
  13. content — the amount
  14. game — a match
  15. pop — soda
  16. cold — an illness
  17. craft — boats
  18. scale — in music
  19. cold — not warm
  20. file — a tool
  21. game — a kind of play
  22. tear — to rip
  23. tear — from crying
  24. file — a document

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