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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: chest · cold · wind · swing · march · content · mine · club

  1. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  2. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  4. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  5. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  6. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  9. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  13. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  14. David sat on the ________________.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  23. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  24. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — a box
  2. wind — moving air
  3. wind — to turn a key
  4. mine — belonging to me
  5. march — the month
  6. content — happy
  7. chest — of your body
  8. mine — for digging
  9. club — a group
  10. chest — of your body
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. club — for dancing
  13. swing — in golf
  14. swing — to play on
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. march — the month
  17. cold — not warm
  18. cold — an illness
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. club — for golf
  21. content — the amount
  22. march — music
  23. swing — music
  24. wind — moving air

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