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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. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  2. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  3. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  4. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  5. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  6. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  11. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  12. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  13. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. The King held a masked ________________.
  16. She's very handy with a ________________.
  17. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  18. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  19. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  20. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. He works in a ________________ mill.
  23. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. deal — a big deal
  2. ball — a round shape
  3. snap — to snap out of it
  4. saw — past of 'see'
  5. content — videos and posts
  6. net — for catching
  7. degree — an amount
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. cold — not warm
  10. deal — an agreement
  11. deal — to handle
  12. content — happy
  13. content — the amount
  14. cold — an illness
  15. ball — a dance
  16. saw — the tool
  17. net — in sport
  18. snap — to click
  19. ball — a great time
  20. snap — to speak sharply
  21. degree — from a university
  22. saw — the tool
  23. net — after costs
  24. degree — temperature

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