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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. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  3. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  4. You don't need to ________________ round.
  5. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  6. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  9. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  10. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  11. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  12. We're almost out of ________________.
  13. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  14. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  15. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. Did you ________________ the meat?
  24. He hit the ball with his ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. wound — an injury
  4. pop — to visit
  5. season — of the year
  6. pop — music
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. wound — past of 'wind'
  9. land — a country
  10. season — in sport
  11. perch — for a bird
  12. pop — soda
  13. land — ground
  14. perch — the fish
  15. racket — a loud noise
  16. field — farmland
  17. land — to come down
  18. content — the amount
  19. racket — for tennis
  20. field — a subject
  21. wound — an injury
  22. field — for sport
  23. season — to add flavour
  24. racket — for tennis

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