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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: drill · cold · row · bulb · stem · content · bound · game

  1. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  2. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. The light ________________ burned out.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  8. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  11. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  12. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  13. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  14. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  15. I've got to change the light ________________.
  16. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  17. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  18. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. That was ________________ to happen.

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

Answer key

  1. content — videos and posts
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. bulb — for light
  4. cold — an illness
  5. drill — a practice
  6. row — a line
  7. bulb — of a plant
  8. drill — army training
  9. game — a match
  10. stem — a stem cell
  11. row — a quarrel
  12. stem — to come from
  13. game — wild animals
  14. bound — obliged
  15. bulb — for light
  16. drill — the tool
  17. bound — tied together
  18. stem — of a plant
  19. row — to paddle
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. content — happy
  22. content — the amount
  23. cold — not warm
  24. bound — certain

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