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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. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  7. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  8. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  9. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  15. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  16. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  22. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  23. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. shower — to wash
  3. cold — not warm
  4. pit — a hole
  5. content — happy
  6. net — for catching
  7. perch — the fish
  8. net — in sport
  9. net — after costs
  10. cold — an illness
  11. perch — for a bird
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. jam — a tight spot
  15. perch — for a bird
  16. jam — in traffic
  17. row — to paddle
  18. jam — to spread on bread
  19. row — a line
  20. shower — rain
  21. pit — in a race
  22. pit — a fruit stone
  23. row — a quarrel
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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