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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: content · cold · face · chair · fork · wind

  1. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  2. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  6. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  7. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  13. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  14. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  15. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a professorship
  2. fork — a garden tool
  3. wind — moving air
  4. cold — not warm
  5. fork — in a road
  6. face — to point toward
  7. content — happy
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. cold — an illness
  10. chair — a leader
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. chair — to sit on
  13. wind — moving air
  14. face — to confront
  15. face — part of the head
  16. content — the amount
  17. fork — to eat with
  18. content — videos and posts

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