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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. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  5. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  8. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. We're on a ________________ here.
  15. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  18. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  19. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  20. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  24. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — videos and posts
  2. snap — to click
  3. tear — from crying
  4. roll — a cake
  5. net — in sport
  6. tear — from crying
  7. roll — a list
  8. object — a thing
  9. content — happy
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. object — to protest
  12. content — the amount
  13. tear — to rip
  14. roll — on a roll
  15. snap — to speak sharply
  16. bat — the animal
  17. object — an aim
  18. net — for catching
  19. net — after costs
  20. snap — to snap out of it
  21. chest — of your body
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. chest — a box
  24. chest — of your body

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