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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. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  3. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  8. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  9. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. The ________________ market has crashed.
  14. He was locked up in a ________________.
  15. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  16. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  17. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  20. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. False peace will not ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. content — videos and posts
  3. firm — decided
  4. content — happy
  5. tear — from crying
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. last — final
  8. last — finally
  9. firm — a company
  10. content — the amount
  11. cell — in biology
  12. tear — to rip
  13. stock — shares
  14. cell — in a prison
  15. stock — goods
  16. tear — from crying
  17. stock — a soup base
  18. chest — of your body
  19. cell — a phone
  20. firm — steady
  21. cold — an illness
  22. chest — a box
  23. cold — not warm
  24. last — to go on

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