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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: cold · squash · content · firm · bore · spring · chest · race

  1. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  2. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  4. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  5. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  6. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  9. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  10. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  11. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  12. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  13. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  16. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  17. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  20. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  21. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. firm — decided
  2. spring — of water
  3. firm — steady
  4. content — the amount
  5. bore — gave birth
  6. bore — to tire
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. race — the arms race
  9. squash — to crush
  10. spring — a coil
  11. race — a contest
  12. squash — the sport
  13. chest — of your body
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. bore — to drill
  16. squash — the vegetable
  17. content — happy
  18. cold — an illness
  19. chest — a box
  20. firm — a company
  21. spring — the season
  22. cold — not warm
  23. chest — of your body
  24. race — humankind

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