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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. Don't do anything ________________.
  2. I'll be taking the ________________.
  3. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  7. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  8. It's one o'clock ________________.
  9. Have you met the new head ________________?
  10. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  11. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  19. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  20. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  21. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  22. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  23. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rash — hasty
  2. tube — the underground
  3. present — a gift
  4. content — happy
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. mine — for digging
  7. coach — pulled by horses
  8. sharp — exactly
  9. coach — a trainer
  10. tube — in a tire
  11. coach — a trainer
  12. content — the amount
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. rash — a series
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. rash — on the skin
  17. game — a match
  18. present — there
  19. tube — a container
  20. present — the time now
  21. content — videos and posts
  22. sharp — clever
  23. sharp — with an edge
  24. game — wild animals

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