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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 trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  2. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  5. He is an ace ________________.
  6. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. When was this ________________ built?
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  12. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  13. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  14. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  15. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  16. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  20. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  21. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  22. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. Fill up this ________________ with water.

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

Answer key

  1. temple — side of the head
  2. chair — a leader
  3. content — happy
  4. chair — a professorship
  5. pitcher — in baseball
  6. prune — to trim
  7. cold — not warm
  8. cold — an illness
  9. temple — a place of worship
  10. shower — rain
  11. shower — to wash
  12. drill — the tool
  13. chair — to sit on
  14. temple — a place of worship
  15. content — videos and posts
  16. prune — to trim
  17. content — the amount
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. drill — a practice
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. prune — the fruit
  22. drill — army training
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. pitcher — a jug

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