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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. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  3. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  4. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  5. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  6. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  7. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  10. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  11. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  14. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  15. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  16. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  17. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  21. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  24. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. present — a gift
  3. content — videos and posts
  4. scale — for weighing
  5. content — the amount
  6. pit — in a race
  7. pit — a hole
  8. cold — not warm
  9. march — the month
  10. row — a quarrel
  11. foot — the bottom
  12. row — a line
  13. foot — part of the body
  14. foot — a measure
  15. present — the time now
  16. present — there
  17. pit — a fruit stone
  18. cold — an illness
  19. row — to paddle
  20. march — music
  21. scale — size or range
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. march — the month
  24. scale — in music

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