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

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  8. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  9. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  10. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  11. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  15. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  16. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  19. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  20. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  24. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. race — humankind
  3. land — to come down
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. mine — for digging
  6. degree — temperature
  7. rest — what's left
  8. race — the arms race
  9. land — a country
  10. trunk — of an elephant
  11. rock — music
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. trunk — of a car
  15. land — ground
  16. rest — a break
  17. degree — an amount
  18. trunk — of a tree
  19. race — a contest
  20. rock — to move gently
  21. content — the amount
  22. degree — from a university
  23. rock — a stone
  24. rest — what's left

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