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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 120 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. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  3. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  4. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  5. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  6. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. That was ________________ to happen.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  14. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  15. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  16. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  17. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  18. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  21. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  24. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. rock — music
  3. row — a quarrel
  4. row — to paddle
  5. rock — a stone
  6. patient — a sick person
  7. mine — for digging
  8. degree — an amount
  9. patient — a sick person
  10. degree — temperature
  11. bound — certain
  12. content — the amount
  13. patient — calm and waiting
  14. bound — obliged
  15. stem — to come from
  16. mine — belonging to me
  17. stem — a stem cell
  18. stem — of a plant
  19. degree — from a university
  20. content — videos and posts
  21. row — a line
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. rock — to move gently
  24. bound — tied together

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