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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 120 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. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Have you found your soul ________________?
  4. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  5. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  6. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  7. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  12. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  13. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  16. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  17. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  18. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  19. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  20. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  21. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bear — the animal
  2. cold — an illness
  3. mate — a partner
  4. mate — to breed
  5. trunk — of an elephant
  6. bear — the animal
  7. shower — to wash
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. content — happy
  10. cold — not warm
  11. snap — to click
  12. shower — a meteor shower
  13. march — the month
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. march — music
  16. trunk — of a car
  17. bear — to put up with
  18. snap — to snap out of it
  19. snap — to speak sharply
  20. mate — a friend
  21. march — the month
  22. content — the amount
  23. trunk — of a tree
  24. shower — rain

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