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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  3. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  4. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  5. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  6. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  10. Don't do anything ________________.
  11. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  12. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  17. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  18. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  19. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  20. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  21. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  22. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. face — to point toward
  3. straw — dry grass
  4. straw — to clutch at straws
  5. face — to confront
  6. face — part of the head
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. cold — an illness
  9. content — the amount
  10. rash — hasty
  11. hide — to keep secret
  12. pound — a weight
  13. cold — not warm
  14. kick — a thrill
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. pound — to hit hard
  17. pound — for dogs
  18. kick — with a leg
  19. rash — a series
  20. hide — to keep secret
  21. hide — animal skin
  22. rash — on the skin
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. kick — in football

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