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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  3. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  4. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  7. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  8. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  9. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  12. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  13. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  16. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  17. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  18. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  19. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  20. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  21. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  22. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. lean — to bend
  3. lean — to rest against
  4. fan — to cool the air
  5. cold — an illness
  6. kick — with a leg
  7. rule — government
  8. rule — a law
  9. perch — for a bird
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. perch — for a bird
  12. lean — thin
  13. perch — the fish
  14. cold — not warm
  15. kick — in football
  16. fan — a supporter
  17. branch — of a tree
  18. rule — to rule out
  19. fan — a supporter
  20. content — the amount
  21. branch — a division
  22. branch — of a bank
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. kick — a thrill

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