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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  3. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  4. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  5. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  6. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  7. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  8. The King held a masked ________________.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  16. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  17. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. content — videos and posts
  3. ball — a great time
  4. wave — of the sea
  5. cap — a hat
  6. ball — a round shape
  7. cap — a lid
  8. ball — a dance
  9. clip — for paper
  10. wound — an injury
  11. content — happy
  12. chest — of your body
  13. chest — a box
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. wave — with your hand
  16. cap — of ice
  17. wave — a sudden rise
  18. clip — a video
  19. chest — of your body
  20. wound — an injury
  21. kid — child
  22. content — the amount
  23. clip — to cut
  24. wound — past of 'wind'

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