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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: cold · content · hand · trunk · craft · land · sharp · roll

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  3. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  4. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  10. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  11. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  12. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  13. We're on a ________________ here.
  14. It's one o'clock ________________.
  15. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  19. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  20. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. The elephant has a huge ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. trunk — of a car
  3. roll — a cake
  4. trunk — of a tree
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. content — happy
  7. land — to come down
  8. land — a country
  9. roll — a list
  10. craft — a handicraft
  11. hand — part of the body
  12. land — ground
  13. roll — on a roll
  14. sharp — exactly
  15. craft — a skill
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. cold — not warm
  18. craft — boats
  19. content — the amount
  20. sharp — with an edge
  21. hand — in cards
  22. sharp — clever
  23. cold — an illness
  24. trunk — of an elephant

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