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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. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  4. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  5. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  12. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  13. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  14. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  15. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  16. How do you ________________ your surname?
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  19. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  20. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  21. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  22. False peace will not ________________.
  23. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — in an idiom
  2. content — happy
  3. branch — a division
  4. branch — of a tree
  5. pitch — a sales talk
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. branch — of a bank
  10. content — the amount
  11. row — a line
  12. spell — magic
  13. last — final
  14. rule — government
  15. row — to paddle
  16. spell — letters
  17. bat — the animal
  18. rule — to rule out
  19. pitch — completely
  20. rule — a law
  21. spell — a short time
  22. last — to go on
  23. pitch — a sports field
  24. last — finally

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