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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 120 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 old man leaned on his ________________.
  2. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  12. Don't do anything ________________.
  13. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. The ________________ took off on time.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  21. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  22. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  23. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  24. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.

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

Answer key

  1. staff — a stick
  2. staff — employees
  3. content — happy
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. wind — moving air
  6. staff — employees
  7. hand — in cards
  8. bass — the fish
  9. cold — not warm
  10. content — the amount
  11. rash — on the skin
  12. rash — hasty
  13. wind — moving air
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. plane — an aircraft
  16. hand — help
  17. wind — to turn a key
  18. cold — an illness
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. bass — low music
  21. plane — a tool
  22. bass — the instrument
  23. plane — in geometry
  24. rash — a series

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