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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: cold · content · shower · cabinet · kick · field · file · sharp

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  5. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  6. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  7. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. It's one o'clock ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  14. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  15. What do you think of the new ________________?
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  21. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  22. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. shower — rain
  3. file — a tool
  4. cabinet — a cupboard
  5. kick — a thrill
  6. sharp — clever
  7. shower — to wash
  8. field — for sport
  9. sharp — exactly
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. sharp — with an edge
  12. cold — an illness
  13. kick — in football
  14. file — a document
  15. cabinet — ministers
  16. content — the amount
  17. field — a subject
  18. field — farmland
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. kick — with a leg
  21. content — videos and posts
  22. cabinet — ministers
  23. cold — not warm
  24. file — a line of people

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