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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. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  3. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  4. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  5. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  6. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  7. I'll be taking the ________________.
  8. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  9. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  10. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  11. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  12. My mare is ________________ in color.
  13. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  14. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  15. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  18. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  21. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  22. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. bowl — a dish
  3. bay — to keep at bay
  4. bowl — to roll
  5. fall — the season
  6. cap — a lid
  7. tube — the underground
  8. fall — to drop
  9. cap — of ice
  10. bowl — a football final
  11. cap — a hat
  12. bay — a horse colour
  13. bay — a part of the sea
  14. tube — in a tire
  15. fall — to drop
  16. content — the amount
  17. prune — to trim
  18. prune — to trim
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. tube — a container
  21. content — videos and posts
  22. prune — the fruit
  23. cold — not warm
  24. cold — an illness

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