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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. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  2. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  6. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  23. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  24. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.

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

Answer key

  1. cap — a lid
  2. stick — a piece of wood
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. degree — an amount
  5. content — videos and posts
  6. stick — a piece of wood
  7. spring — the season
  8. spring — a coil
  9. craft — boats
  10. spring — of water
  11. cap — a hat
  12. chest — a box
  13. stick — to attach or keep to
  14. degree — temperature
  15. game — a match
  16. craft — a skill
  17. degree — from a university
  18. chest — of your body
  19. content — the amount
  20. chest — of your body
  21. game — wild animals
  22. cap — of ice
  23. content — happy
  24. craft — a handicraft

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