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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: content · cold · stock · face · band · game · mark · trunk

  1. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  2. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  6. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  7. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  8. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  9. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  14. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  15. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  16. That was a fun ________________.
  17. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  18. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  21. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  22. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  23. The ________________ market has crashed.
  24. What's the difference between broth and ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. mark — to pay attention
  2. trunk — of a car
  3. content — happy
  4. cold — an illness
  5. face — to confront
  6. mark — a grade
  7. trunk — of a tree
  8. band — a rubber band
  9. stock — goods
  10. cold — not warm
  11. content — videos and posts
  12. content — the amount
  13. game — a kind of play
  14. trunk — of an elephant
  15. face — to point toward
  16. game — a match
  17. band — a music group
  18. band — a ring
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. mark — a trace
  21. face — part of the head
  22. game — wild animals
  23. stock — shares
  24. stock — a soup base

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