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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. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  2. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  5. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  8. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  12. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  13. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  14. When was this ________________ built?
  15. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  16. Have you settled on a ________________?
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  19. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  20. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  21. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  22. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  23. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  24. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.

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

Answer key

  1. date — the fruit
  2. club — for golf
  3. content — happy
  4. temple — side of the head
  5. tear — from crying
  6. cold — not warm
  7. club — a group
  8. temple — a place of worship
  9. cold — an illness
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. foot — a measure
  12. row — to paddle
  13. foot — the bottom
  14. temple — a place of worship
  15. club — for dancing
  16. date — on the calendar
  17. content — the amount
  18. tear — from crying
  19. foot — part of the body
  20. content — videos and posts
  21. row — a quarrel
  22. date — on the calendar
  23. tear — to rip
  24. row — a line

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