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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 116 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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  2. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  3. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  6. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  9. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  13. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  14. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  15. There's no middle ________________.
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — for baseball
  2. net — for catching
  3. bat — the animal
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. net — in sport
  6. net — after costs
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. chair — a leader
  9. chair — to sit on
  10. cold — not warm
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. chair — a professorship
  13. ground — the earth
  14. content — happy
  15. ground — a position
  16. content — the amount
  17. ground — crushed
  18. cold — an illness

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