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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.

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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: wind · saw · content · hand · stem · game · tear · coach

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  3. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  4. He works in a ________________ mill.
  5. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  6. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  7. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  12. That was a fun ________________.
  13. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. She's very handy with a ________________.
  16. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  17. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  18. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  19. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  20. Have you met the new head ________________?
  21. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. tear — to rip
  3. stem — to come from
  4. saw — the tool
  5. wind — to turn a key
  6. wind — moving air
  7. game — a kind of play
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. stem — of a plant
  10. wind — moving air
  11. coach — a trainer
  12. game — a match
  13. game — wild animals
  14. hand — help
  15. saw — the tool
  16. tear — from crying
  17. saw — past of 'see'
  18. coach — pulled by horses
  19. content — the amount
  20. coach — a trainer
  21. stem — a stem cell
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. hand — in cards
  24. tear — from crying

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