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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 116 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. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  8. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  13. He was locked up in a ________________.
  14. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  15. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. False peace will not ________________.
  18. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  19. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  20. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. row — to paddle
  2. cold — not warm
  3. cold — an illness
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. pit — in a race
  6. cell — a phone
  7. calf — of the leg
  8. last — final
  9. content — happy
  10. row — a quarrel
  11. content — the amount
  12. calf — a young animal
  13. cell — in a prison
  14. last — finally
  15. row — a line
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. last — to go on
  18. pit — a hole
  19. pit — a fruit stone
  20. calf — a young animal
  21. land — to come down
  22. land — ground
  23. land — a country
  24. cell — in biology

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