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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. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  8. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  12. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  13. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  14. Don't do anything ________________.
  15. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. It's one o'clock ________________.
  24. I seem to be developing a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pitch — completely
  2. spring — a coil
  3. kid — to tease
  4. hand — help
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. rash — a series
  8. pitch — a sports field
  9. spring — of water
  10. degree — temperature
  11. pitch — a sales talk
  12. sharp — with an edge
  13. content — happy
  14. rash — hasty
  15. sharp — clever
  16. spring — the season
  17. hand — in cards
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. kid — child
  20. degree — from a university
  21. degree — an amount
  22. content — the amount
  23. sharp — exactly
  24. rash — on the skin

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