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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: fan · ground · pound · content · cold · bear · staff · mouse

  1. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  2. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  3. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  4. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  7. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  11. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  12. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  13. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  14. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  15. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. There's no middle ________________.
  18. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  19. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  20. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  21. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. mouse — for a computer
  3. mouse — the animal
  4. pound — a weight
  5. cold — an illness
  6. staff — employees
  7. mouse — the animal
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. cold — not warm
  10. bear — the animal
  11. staff — a stick
  12. pound — to hit hard
  13. bear — the animal
  14. fan — a supporter
  15. ground — crushed
  16. content — the amount
  17. ground — a position
  18. staff — employees
  19. content — happy
  20. fan — to cool the air
  21. bear — to put up with
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. pound — for dogs
  24. ground — the earth

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