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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. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  2. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  3. What do you think of the new ________________?
  4. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  8. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  9. This piece is in a major ________________.
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  12. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  13. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  14. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  15. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  18. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  19. There's no middle ________________.
  20. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  21. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  24. Add some ________________ pepper to it.

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

Answer key

  1. craft — boats
  2. squash — the sport
  3. cabinet — ministers
  4. cabinet — a cupboard
  5. field — a subject
  6. game — a match
  7. content — happy
  8. ground — the earth
  9. key — in music
  10. content — the amount
  11. squash — the vegetable
  12. game — wild animals
  13. squash — to crush
  14. key — for a lock
  15. key — the most important part
  16. field — farmland
  17. game — a kind of play
  18. craft — a skill
  19. ground — a position
  20. content — videos and posts
  21. cabinet — ministers
  22. field — for sport
  23. craft — a handicraft
  24. ground — crushed

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