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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 · mark · mine · stand · foot · bat · chest · cold

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  3. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  6. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  7. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  8. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  9. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  10. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  11. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  15. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  18. I can't ________________ this cold.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. chest — a box
  3. foot — a measure
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. chest — of your body
  6. content — happy
  7. mine — an explosive
  8. stand — on your feet
  9. foot — the bottom
  10. mark — to pay attention
  11. mine — for digging
  12. cold — not warm
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. foot — part of the body
  15. content — the amount
  16. chest — of your body
  17. stand — for spectators
  18. stand — to bear
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. bat — the animal
  22. mark — a grade
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. mark — a trace

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