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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  6. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  7. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  8. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  9. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  10. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  11. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  16. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  21. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  22. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  23. There's no middle ________________.
  24. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. capital — a city
  3. bowl — a football final
  4. hand — help
  5. foot — a measure
  6. content — the amount
  7. bowl — to roll
  8. ground — crushed
  9. net — after costs
  10. hand — in cards
  11. hand — part of the body
  12. capital — money
  13. net — in sport
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. foot — part of the body
  16. net — for catching
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. foot — the bottom
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. bowl — a dish
  21. ground — the earth
  22. capital — a big letter
  23. ground — a position
  24. bat — the animal

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