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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 116 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. The water is too ________________.
  2. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  3. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  4. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  5. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The tickets are free of ________________.
  12. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  13. False peace will not ________________.
  14. The King held a masked ________________.
  15. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  16. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  17. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  20. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  21. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  24. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. charge — electricity
  3. kid — child
  4. wind — moving air
  5. ball — a round shape
  6. kid — to tease
  7. charge — in control
  8. wind — moving air
  9. content — the amount
  10. cold — an illness
  11. charge — a price
  12. wound — an injury
  13. last — to go on
  14. ball — a dance
  15. wound — past of 'wind'
  16. ball — a great time
  17. wound — an injury
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  20. content — videos and posts
  21. last — final
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. last — finally
  24. content — happy

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