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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. That was a fun ________________.
  2. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  3. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  6. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  7. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  8. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  9. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  10. Have you settled on a ________________?
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  13. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  23. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a match
  2. craft — a handicraft
  3. craft — boats
  4. spring — a coil
  5. date — the fruit
  6. fine — a penalty
  7. fine — all right
  8. fine — high quality
  9. mine — an explosive
  10. date — on the calendar
  11. spring — the season
  12. craft — a skill
  13. mine — for digging
  14. bat — the animal
  15. game — wild animals
  16. spring — of water
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. content — happy
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. content — the amount
  22. game — a kind of play
  23. date — on the calendar
  24. bat — for 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