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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. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  2. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  7. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  8. Don't do anything ________________.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  11. We're almost out of ________________.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  16. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. You don't need to ________________ round.
  22. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  23. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  24. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. staff — employees
  2. pop — music
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. race — humankind
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. rash — on the skin
  7. rash — a series
  8. rash — hasty
  9. content — happy
  10. race — a contest
  11. pop — soda
  12. content — the amount
  13. staff — employees
  14. hand — in cards
  15. perch — for a bird
  16. staff — a stick
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. cold — an illness
  19. hand — help
  20. cold — not warm
  21. pop — to visit
  22. perch — the fish
  23. race — the arms race
  24. perch — for a bird

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