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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 · spring · drill · chest · swing · fork · fine

  1. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  2. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  5. David sat on the ________________.
  6. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  11. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  12. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  13. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  14. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  19. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — all right
  2. drill — the tool
  3. content — happy
  4. fine — a penalty
  5. swing — to play on
  6. chest — a box
  7. cold — an illness
  8. spring — the season
  9. chest — of your body
  10. chest — of your body
  11. fork — a garden tool
  12. fork — to eat with
  13. swing — in golf
  14. content — the amount
  15. spring — a coil
  16. swing — music
  17. spring — of water
  18. fork — in a road
  19. drill — army training
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. drill — a practice
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. fine — high quality
  24. cold — not warm

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