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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 girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  3. That was a fun ________________.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. The ________________ went through the wall.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  11. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  12. How do you ________________ your surname?
  13. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  14. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  15. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  16. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. nail — on a finger
  3. game — a match
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. nail — for a hammer
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. bat — the animal
  9. content — happy
  10. nail — for a hammer
  11. spell — magic
  12. spell — letters
  13. game — a kind of play
  14. row — to paddle
  15. content — the amount
  16. spell — a short time
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. game — wild animals

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