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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  3. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  8. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  9. David sat on the ________________.
  10. He is an ace ________________.
  11. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  12. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  15. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  16. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  21. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  24. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. swing — music
  3. bat — the animal
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. root — of a plant
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. pitcher — a jug
  8. root — the cause
  9. swing — to play on
  10. pitcher — in baseball
  11. row — a quarrel
  12. swing — in golf
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. wound — an injury
  15. bore — to drill
  16. pitcher — a jug
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. wound — an injury
  19. row — to paddle
  20. bore — to tire
  21. bore — gave birth
  22. content — the amount
  23. root — of a word
  24. row — a line

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