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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 120 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: cold · content · deal · tube · squash · clip · scale · rush

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. That must've been a ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. I'll be taking the ________________.
  6. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  7. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  10. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  11. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  12. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  13. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  14. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  15. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  16. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  17. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  18. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  24. I'd like to play a game of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. cold — an illness
  3. rush — a thrill
  4. cold — not warm
  5. tube — the underground
  6. content — the amount
  7. rush — hurry
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. rush — to hurry
  10. scale — size or range
  11. content — videos and posts
  12. scale — for weighing
  13. squash — to crush
  14. tube — a container
  15. squash — the vegetable
  16. deal — a big deal
  17. tube — in a tire
  18. deal — an agreement
  19. clip — for paper
  20. clip — to cut
  21. scale — in music
  22. clip — a video
  23. deal — to handle
  24. squash — the sport

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