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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 120 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. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  3. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  12. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  13. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  14. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  15. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  16. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  19. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  20. He was locked up in a ________________.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. mark — a grade
  3. perch — for a bird
  4. capital — a city
  5. content — happy
  6. drill — a practice
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. kid — to tease
  9. mark — a trace
  10. content — the amount
  11. mark — to pay attention
  12. cell — a phone
  13. drill — army training
  14. perch — the fish
  15. drill — the tool
  16. capital — money
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. cell — in biology
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. cell — in a prison
  21. kid — child
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. hand — in cards
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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