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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: cold · land · pop · content · cue · wake · club · chest

  1. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  4. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  10. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  11. We're almost out of ________________.
  12. You don't need to ________________ round.
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  15. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  18. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.

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

Answer key

  1. cue — a signal
  2. content — happy
  3. cue — for pool
  4. club — for dancing
  5. chest — a box
  6. wake — to stop sleeping
  7. land — ground
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. wake — a trail
  10. cue — a hint
  11. pop — soda
  12. pop — to visit
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. chest — of your body
  15. club — for golf
  16. content — the amount
  17. wake — before a funeral
  18. pop — music
  19. land — to come down
  20. cold — an illness
  21. chest — of your body
  22. cold — not warm
  23. land — a country
  24. club — a group

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