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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  3. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  6. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  7. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  8. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  9. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  10. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  11. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  12. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  16. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  21. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  24. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. content — the amount
  3. spring — a coil
  4. spring — of water
  5. rock — a stone
  6. rest — what's left
  7. bowl — a dish
  8. bowl — a football final
  9. bowl — to roll
  10. fall — to drop
  11. rest — a break
  12. rest — what's left
  13. cold — not warm
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. rock — music
  16. rock — to move gently
  17. clip — a video
  18. spring — the season
  19. cold — an illness
  20. content — happy
  21. fall — the season
  22. clip — to cut
  23. fall — to drop
  24. content — videos and posts

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