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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  4. The ball is in your ________________.
  5. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  6. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  7. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  11. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  14. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. You don't need to ________________ round.
  17. We're almost out of ________________.
  18. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  21. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  22. My father caught me by the ________________.
  23. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. degree — an amount
  3. court — of law
  4. court — for sport
  5. branch — of a bank
  6. object — an aim
  7. arm — a part of something
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. cold — not warm
  10. arm — part of the body
  11. branch — a division
  12. degree — from a university
  13. object — to protest
  14. branch — of a tree
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. pop — to visit
  17. pop — soda
  18. pop — music
  19. cold — an illness
  20. content — the amount
  21. court — of a king
  22. arm — part of the body
  23. object — a thing
  24. degree — temperature

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