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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: stick · roll · jam · ball · land · race · cold · content

  1. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  2. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  3. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  4. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  7. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  14. We're on a ________________ here.
  15. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  16. The King held a masked ________________.
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  23. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  24. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a great time
  2. jam — to spread on bread
  3. land — a country
  4. race — the arms race
  5. land — ground
  6. stick — to attach or keep to
  7. race — a contest
  8. cold — not warm
  9. content — happy
  10. content — the amount
  11. jam — in traffic
  12. cold — an illness
  13. roll — a list
  14. roll — on a roll
  15. stick — a piece of wood
  16. ball — a dance
  17. land — to come down
  18. stick — a piece of wood
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. ball — a round shape
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. race — humankind
  23. jam — a tight spot
  24. roll — a cake

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