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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: chair · content · rest · pop · fall · mate · cold · march

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  3. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  6. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  7. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  8. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  9. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  10. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  11. You don't need to ________________ round.
  12. We're almost out of ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Have you found your soul ________________?
  15. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  16. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  17. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  18. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  19. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  20. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  21. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  22. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. mate — a friend
  3. fall — to drop
  4. cold — an illness
  5. march — the month
  6. chair — to sit on
  7. chair — a leader
  8. rest — a break
  9. fall — the season
  10. fall — to drop
  11. pop — to visit
  12. pop — soda
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. mate — a partner
  15. march — the month
  16. rest — what's left
  17. content — happy
  18. chair — a professorship
  19. march — music
  20. content — videos and posts
  21. mate — to breed
  22. rest — what's left
  23. content — the amount
  24. pop — music

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