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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. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  2. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  3. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  6. How do you ________________ your surname?
  7. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  11. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  12. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  13. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  14. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. The ________________ market has crashed.
  18. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  19. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  20. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  21. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  22. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  23. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  24. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.

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

Answer key

  1. file — a tool
  2. content — the amount
  3. stock — goods
  4. content — happy
  5. content — videos and posts
  6. spell — letters
  7. stock — a soup base
  8. cold — not warm
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. spell — a short time
  11. scale — size or range
  12. can — a tin
  13. kick — with a leg
  14. scale — in music
  15. cold — an illness
  16. file — a document
  17. stock — shares
  18. scale — for weighing
  19. spell — magic
  20. file — a line of people
  21. kick — in football
  22. can — to be able to
  23. kick — a thrill
  24. can — a tin

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