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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. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  2. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  3. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  6. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  7. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  8. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  9. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  12. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  15. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  20. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  21. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  22. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — the season
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. dip — to sink
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. craft — boats
  6. content — happy
  7. craft — a handicraft
  8. wax — for sculpting
  9. content — videos and posts
  10. cold — not warm
  11. wax — to grow
  12. fan — a supporter
  13. spring — a coil
  14. fan — to cool the air
  15. band — a music group
  16. spring — of water
  17. band — a rubber band
  18. cold — an illness
  19. dip — a sauce
  20. craft — a skill
  21. band — a ring
  22. wax — in the ear
  23. content — the amount
  24. dip — to dunk

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