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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: hand · cold · clip · bay · fine · date · content · face

  1. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  2. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  5. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. My mare is ________________ in color.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  13. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  18. Have you settled on a ________________?
  19. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  20. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  21. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  22. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  23. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — high quality
  2. face — to confront
  3. cold — not warm
  4. bay — to keep at bay
  5. date — on the calendar
  6. clip — for paper
  7. fine — a penalty
  8. clip — a video
  9. bay — a horse colour
  10. cold — an illness
  11. hand — in cards
  12. fine — all right
  13. content — the amount
  14. clip — to cut
  15. hand — help
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. date — the fruit
  18. date — on the calendar
  19. bay — a part of the sea
  20. content — happy
  21. face — to point toward
  22. face — part of the head
  23. hand — part of the body
  24. cold — the Cold War

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