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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. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  2. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  3. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  6. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  7. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  10. He was locked up in a ________________.
  11. That was a fun ________________.
  12. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  13. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  14. False peace will not ________________.
  15. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  16. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  21. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  22. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  23. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. pit — a fruit stone
  2. wound — an injury
  3. pit — a hole
  4. march — music
  5. wound — past of 'wind'
  6. pit — in a race
  7. root — of a plant
  8. content — happy
  9. march — the month
  10. cell — in a prison
  11. game — a match
  12. game — wild animals
  13. last — final
  14. last — to go on
  15. content — the amount
  16. march — the month
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. root — the cause
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. wound — an injury
  21. root — of a word
  22. last — finally
  23. cell — a phone
  24. cell — in biology

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