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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. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  5. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. Have you found your soul ________________?
  14. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  15. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  16. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  17. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. band — a rubber band
  3. content — happy
  4. band — a music group
  5. bark — a dog's sound
  6. chest — of your body
  7. scale — in music
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. mate — a friend
  10. content — the amount
  11. chest — a box
  12. field — for sport
  13. mate — a partner
  14. scale — for weighing
  15. scale — size or range
  16. band — a ring
  17. mate — to breed
  18. cold — not warm
  19. field — farmland
  20. bark — of a tree
  21. cold — an illness
  22. chest — of your body
  23. field — a subject
  24. bark — to shout

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