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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. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  2. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  3. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  4. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  7. We're almost out of ________________.
  8. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  9. False peace will not ________________.
  10. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  11. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. He was locked up in a ________________.
  14. It's one o'clock ________________.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  19. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  20. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  21. You don't need to ________________ round.
  22. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  23. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — clever
  2. content — the amount
  3. fall — to drop
  4. sharp — with an edge
  5. cell — a phone
  6. content — happy
  7. pop — soda
  8. cell — in biology
  9. last — to go on
  10. fall — the season
  11. row — a line
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. cell — in a prison
  14. sharp — exactly
  15. cold — not warm
  16. row — to paddle
  17. cold — an illness
  18. row — a quarrel
  19. pop — music
  20. last — final
  21. pop — to visit
  22. last — finally
  23. fall — to drop
  24. cold — the Cold War

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