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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 don't want to ________________ the boat.
  2. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  3. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  4. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  5. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  6. David sat on the ________________.
  7. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  10. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  11. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  12. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  13. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  14. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  20. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  21. There's no middle ________________.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. Have you met the new head ________________?
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. rock — to move gently
  2. rock — music
  3. hand — in cards
  4. ground — crushed
  5. coach — a trainer
  6. swing — to play on
  7. swing — music
  8. cold — not warm
  9. scale — for weighing
  10. swing — in golf
  11. coach — pulled by horses
  12. scale — size or range
  13. ground — the earth
  14. rock — a stone
  15. hand — help
  16. cold — an illness
  17. content — happy
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. scale — in music
  20. content — the amount
  21. ground — a position
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. coach — a trainer
  24. cold — the Cold War

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