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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. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  2. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  4. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  11. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  12. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  13. There's no middle ________________.
  14. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  17. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  18. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  19. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  20. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. The ball is in your ________________.
  23. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  24. Check the label for the sugar ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a quarrel
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. content — videos and posts
  4. fine — high quality
  5. content — happy
  6. game — a match
  7. row — a line
  8. bat — the animal
  9. court — of a king
  10. ground — crushed
  11. game — wild animals
  12. fine — all right
  13. ground — a position
  14. row — to paddle
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. fine — a penalty
  17. bark — of a tree
  18. bark — to shout
  19. bark — a dog's sound
  20. ground — the earth
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. court — for sport
  23. court — of law
  24. content — the amount

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