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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The light ________________ burned out.
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  5. I've got to change the light ________________.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. It's one o'clock ________________.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. There's no middle ________________.
  10. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  15. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  16. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  19. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  20. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  23. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  24. Do you need a ________________ with that?

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. bulb — for light
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. branch — of a tree
  5. bulb — for light
  6. kid — child
  7. sharp — exactly
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. ground — a position
  10. sharp — with an edge
  11. kid — to tease
  12. ground — the earth
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. sharp — clever
  15. content — the amount
  16. content — happy
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. branch — of a bank
  19. bulb — of a plant
  20. ground — crushed
  21. cold — not warm
  22. hand — in cards
  23. branch — a division
  24. hand — help

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