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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. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  2. He was locked up in a ________________.
  3. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  6. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  10. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  14. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  15. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  16. It's one o'clock ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  20. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  21. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  22. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  23. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  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. lean — to rest against
  2. cell — in a prison
  3. lean — to bend
  4. cell — a phone
  5. perch — the fish
  6. spring — of water
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. spring — a coil
  9. lean — thin
  10. sharp — clever
  11. spring — the season
  12. cold — an illness
  13. content — the amount
  14. sharp — with an edge
  15. perch — for a bird
  16. sharp — exactly
  17. cold — not warm
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. trunk — of a tree
  20. perch — for a bird
  21. trunk — of a car
  22. trunk — of an elephant
  23. content — happy
  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