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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 · arm · bass · patient · chair · date · race · content

  1. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  7. Have you settled on a ________________?
  8. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  9. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  10. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  13. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  14. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  15. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  16. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  19. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. My father caught me by the ________________.
  22. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  23. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  24. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. bass — the instrument
  3. content — happy
  4. arm — part of the body
  5. race — a contest
  6. content — videos and posts
  7. date — on the calendar
  8. bass — low music
  9. patient — a sick person
  10. race — humankind
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. patient — calm and waiting
  13. patient — a sick person
  14. date — on the calendar
  15. chair — a leader
  16. bass — the fish
  17. cold — not warm
  18. chair — to sit on
  19. race — the arms race
  20. cold — an illness
  21. arm — part of the body
  22. arm — a part of something
  23. date — the fruit
  24. chair — a professorship

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