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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  3. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  6. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  7. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  11. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  12. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  19. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. We're almost out of ________________.
  22. You don't need to ________________ round.
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. can — a tin
  3. pop — music
  4. chest — of your body
  5. wound — an injury
  6. scale — in music
  7. can — a tin
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. wind — moving air
  10. wound — an injury
  11. hand — part of the body
  12. scale — for weighing
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. chest — of your body
  15. chest — a box
  16. wind — moving air
  17. hand — in cards
  18. can — to be able to
  19. scale — size or range
  20. hand — help
  21. pop — soda
  22. pop — to visit
  23. content — the amount
  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