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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. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. How do you ________________ your surname?
  10. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  16. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  17. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  18. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  19. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  22. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  23. That was a fun ________________.
  24. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. racket — for tennis
  3. game — wild animals
  4. march — music
  5. fan — a supporter
  6. clip — a video
  7. fan — to cool the air
  8. content — the amount
  9. spell — letters
  10. face — to confront
  11. march — the month
  12. fan — a supporter
  13. clip — for paper
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. spell — magic
  16. face — part of the head
  17. spell — a short time
  18. racket — for tennis
  19. face — to point toward
  20. clip — to cut
  21. march — the month
  22. game — a kind of play
  23. game — a match
  24. racket — a loud noise

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