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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. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  2. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  3. Did you ________________ the button?
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  6. The ________________ went through the wall.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  14. It's one o'clock ________________.
  15. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  19. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  20. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  21. Have you settled on a ________________?
  22. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  23. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. track — a song
  2. nail — on a finger
  3. press — to push
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. track — a path
  6. nail — for a hammer
  7. cold — an illness
  8. sharp — clever
  9. bat — the animal
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. content — happy
  12. content — the amount
  13. date — the fruit
  14. sharp — exactly
  15. press — a publisher
  16. cold — not warm
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. press — newspapers
  19. track — to keep track
  20. date — on the calendar
  21. date — on the calendar
  22. nail — for a hammer
  23. sharp — with an edge
  24. bat — for baseball

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