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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 124 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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  3. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  4. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. He was locked up in a ________________.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  13. This piece is in a major ________________.
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  19. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  24. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. deal — a big deal
  3. cell — in biology
  4. key — for a lock
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. cell — a phone
  7. cold — not warm
  8. key — the most important part
  9. clip — to cut
  10. cell — in a prison
  11. clip — for paper
  12. face — part of the head
  13. key — in music
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. deal — an agreement
  16. clip — a video
  17. cold — an illness
  18. face — to confront
  19. mine — for digging
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. deal — to handle
  22. content — the amount
  23. face — to point toward
  24. mine — an explosive

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