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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: drill · spring · race · sharp · content · date · pound · face

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  3. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  7. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  8. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  9. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  10. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  11. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  14. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  15. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  16. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  17. Have you settled on a ________________?
  18. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  19. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  20. It's one o'clock ________________.
  21. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. Check the label for the sugar ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. sharp — with an edge
  3. pound — a weight
  4. spring — a coil
  5. race — a contest
  6. date — on the calendar
  7. date — the fruit
  8. face — to confront
  9. pound — to hit hard
  10. face — to point toward
  11. drill — a practice
  12. spring — of water
  13. drill — army training
  14. sharp — clever
  15. face — part of the head
  16. pound — for dogs
  17. date — on the calendar
  18. race — humankind
  19. drill — the tool
  20. sharp — exactly
  21. race — the arms race
  22. spring — the season
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. content — the amount

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