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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. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  6. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  7. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  10. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  11. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  12. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  16. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  21. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  24. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  2. kid — to tease
  3. net — in sport
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. dip — to sink
  6. chair — a leader
  7. dip — a sauce
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. content — videos and posts
  10. chair — to sit on
  11. net — for catching
  12. wax — to grow
  13. bat — the animal
  14. file — a tool
  15. wax — for sculpting
  16. content — happy
  17. content — the amount
  18. kid — child
  19. file — a document
  20. chair — a professorship
  21. net — after costs
  22. file — a line of people
  23. wax — in the ear
  24. dip — to dunk

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