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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 124 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. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  3. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  4. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. The ball is in your ________________.
  7. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  12. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  15. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  16. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  17. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  20. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  21. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  24. My father caught me by the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. present — a gift
  3. content — videos and posts
  4. rock — to move gently
  5. cold — an illness
  6. court — for sport
  7. tear — to rip
  8. cold — not warm
  9. court — of a king
  10. content — the amount
  11. wound — an injury
  12. rock — a stone
  13. tear — from crying
  14. present — the time now
  15. arm — part of the body
  16. present — there
  17. wound — past of 'wind'
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. court — of law
  20. rock — music
  21. tear — from crying
  22. wound — an injury
  23. arm — a part of something
  24. arm — part of the body

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