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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: file · content · bark · game · lean · cold · chest · hide

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  3. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  12. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  19. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  20. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  21. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  22. That was a fun ________________.
  23. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. hide — to keep secret
  3. content — videos and posts
  4. file — a document
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. hide — to keep secret
  7. chest — of your body
  8. lean — to bend
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. chest — of your body
  11. lean — to rest against
  12. lean — thin
  13. file — a line of people
  14. file — a tool
  15. cold — an illness
  16. game — wild animals
  17. content — the amount
  18. bark — of a tree
  19. bark — a dog's sound
  20. bark — to shout
  21. content — happy
  22. game — a match
  23. hide — animal skin
  24. chest — a box

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