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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 120 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. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  4. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  5. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  6. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  7. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  8. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. Have you met the new head ________________?
  11. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  12. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. Don't do anything ________________.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  23. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  24. He is an ace ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. degree — an amount
  3. content — videos and posts
  4. content — the amount
  5. game — wild animals
  6. content — happy
  7. coach — pulled by horses
  8. coach — a trainer
  9. game — a match
  10. coach — a trainer
  11. degree — from a university
  12. wind — moving air
  13. wind — moving air
  14. rash — hasty
  15. hand — help
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. rash — a series
  18. degree — temperature
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. hand — in cards
  22. rash — on the skin
  23. wind — to turn a key
  24. pitcher — in baseball

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