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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. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  3. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  4. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  5. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  6. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  9. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  10. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  13. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  14. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  18. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  22. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. content — the amount
  3. object — an aim
  4. rule — to rule out
  5. rest — what's left
  6. object — to protest
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. cell — in biology
  9. march — the month
  10. rest — what's left
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. cell — a phone
  13. content — happy
  14. rule — a law
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. rest — a break
  18. object — a thing
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. cold — an illness
  21. march — the month
  22. rule — government
  23. cold — not warm
  24. march — music

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