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

Word bank: staff · club · hand · last · cold · trunk · content · kick

  1. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  2. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  3. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  4. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  5. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  6. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  11. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  12. False peace will not ________________.
  13. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  18. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  21. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  24. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.

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

Answer key

  1. staff — employees
  2. content — the amount
  3. kick — a thrill
  4. kick — in football
  5. kick — with a leg
  6. content — videos and posts
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. trunk — of an elephant
  9. content — happy
  10. last — final
  11. club — for dancing
  12. last — to go on
  13. last — finally
  14. cold — an illness
  15. trunk — of a car
  16. hand — help
  17. club — for golf
  18. staff — employees
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. hand — in cards
  21. staff — a stick
  22. cold — not warm
  23. trunk — of a tree
  24. club — a group

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