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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. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  2. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  6. False peace will not ________________.
  7. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  11. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  12. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  13. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — to drop
  2. fork — a garden tool
  3. spring — the season
  4. cold — not warm
  5. fork — in a road
  6. last — to go on
  7. content — the amount
  8. row — a line
  9. content — happy
  10. last — final
  11. chair — a leader
  12. last — finally
  13. fork — to eat with
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. chair — a professorship
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. spring — of water
  18. row — to paddle
  19. fall — the season
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. chair — to sit on
  22. spring — a coil
  23. fall — to drop
  24. cold — an illness

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