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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. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  4. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  5. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  6. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. My father caught me by the ________________.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  18. The King held a masked ________________.
  19. The ________________ went through the wall.
  20. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  21. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  22. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  23. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. track — a path
  2. content — happy
  3. ball — a round shape
  4. arm — part of the body
  5. track — to keep track
  6. nail — on a finger
  7. file — a tool
  8. arm — part of the body
  9. shower — rain
  10. wound — past of 'wind'
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. nail — for a hammer
  13. shower — to wash
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. file — a document
  16. content — the amount
  17. wound — an injury
  18. ball — a dance
  19. nail — for a hammer
  20. wound — an injury
  21. ball — a great time
  22. arm — a part of something
  23. track — a song
  24. file — a line of people

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