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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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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 · chest · squash · court · wind · cold · stick · present

  1. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  2. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  6. The ball is in your ________________.
  7. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  8. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  9. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  14. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  15. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  16. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  17. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  20. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  21. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  24. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.

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

Answer key

  1. present — there
  2. chest — a box
  3. chest — of your body
  4. cold — not warm
  5. wind — to turn a key
  6. court — for sport
  7. content — happy
  8. court — of a king
  9. present — a gift
  10. wind — moving air
  11. wind — moving air
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. squash — to crush
  14. stick — a piece of wood
  15. squash — the sport
  16. stick — to attach or keep to
  17. stick — a piece of wood
  18. content — the amount
  19. present — the time now
  20. chest — of your body
  21. content — videos and posts
  22. cold — an illness
  23. squash — the vegetable
  24. court — of law

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