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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. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. He was locked up in a ________________.
  4. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  5. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  6. We're almost out of ________________.
  7. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  16. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  17. You don't need to ________________ round.
  18. There's no middle ________________.
  19. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  20. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  21. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  22. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. Boris sat near the fire ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — all right
  2. cold — an illness
  3. cell — in a prison
  4. pop — music
  5. ground — the earth
  6. pop — soda
  7. ground — crushed
  8. file — a document
  9. pit — in a race
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. content — the amount
  12. file — a tool
  13. file — a line of people
  14. cold — not warm
  15. content — happy
  16. fine — a penalty
  17. pop — to visit
  18. ground — a position
  19. fine — high quality
  20. pit — a fruit stone
  21. cell — a phone
  22. cell — in biology
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. pit — a hole

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