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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 water is too ________________.
  2. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  3. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  4. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  5. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  6. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  7. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  8. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. He is an ace ________________.
  11. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  12. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  13. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  14. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  17. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  22. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  23. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  24. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. calf — a young animal
  3. trunk — of an elephant
  4. kick — a thrill
  5. pound — for dogs
  6. row — to paddle
  7. row — a quarrel
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. content — happy
  10. pitcher — in baseball
  11. content — videos and posts
  12. trunk — of a car
  13. calf — of the leg
  14. pitcher — a jug
  15. cold — an illness
  16. row — a line
  17. pound — to hit hard
  18. content — the amount
  19. trunk — of a tree
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. kick — with a leg
  22. kick — in football
  23. pound — a weight
  24. calf — a young animal

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