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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: staff · chest · lie · content · cold · pitcher · land · mate

  1. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  2. Have you found your soul ________________?
  3. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  6. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  9. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  10. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  11. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  12. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  15. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  18. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  19. He is an ace ________________.
  20. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. mate — a partner
  3. staff — employees
  4. cold — an illness
  5. lie — an untruth
  6. content — the amount
  7. chest — of your body
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. staff — employees
  10. staff — a stick
  11. content — happy
  12. land — ground
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. lie — an untruth
  15. mate — a friend
  16. land — to come down
  17. lie — to recline
  18. mate — to breed
  19. pitcher — in baseball
  20. land — a country
  21. cold — not warm
  22. chest — a box
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. chest — of your body

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