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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 116 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. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  3. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  4. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  5. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  6. It's one o'clock ________________.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  9. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  10. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  14. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  15. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  16. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  17. There's no middle ________________.
  18. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  19. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  22. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  23. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  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. content — happy
  2. rock — a stone
  3. sharp — clever
  4. ground — crushed
  5. race — humankind
  6. sharp — exactly
  7. field — farmland
  8. ground — the earth
  9. race — a contest
  10. rock — music
  11. field — for sport
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. race — the arms race
  14. sharp — with an edge
  15. march — the month
  16. march — music
  17. ground — a position
  18. hide — to keep secret
  19. hide — to keep secret
  20. field — a subject
  21. hide — animal skin
  22. rock — to move gently
  23. march — the month
  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