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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. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  2. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  6. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  7. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. He was locked up in a ________________.
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  16. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  17. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  18. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  19. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  20. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  24. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.

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

Answer key

  1. hide — to keep secret
  2. hide — animal skin
  3. content — happy
  4. hand — in cards
  5. current — electric
  6. content — the amount
  7. current — happening now
  8. cold — not warm
  9. spring — of water
  10. cold — an illness
  11. spring — the season
  12. cell — in a prison
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. hand — help
  15. hide — to keep secret
  16. wake — a trail
  17. wake — to stop sleeping
  18. cell — in biology
  19. current — of water
  20. content — videos and posts
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. cell — a phone
  23. spring — a coil
  24. wake — before a funeral

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