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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. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  2. Have you met the new head ________________?
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  14. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — pulled by horses
  2. coach — a trainer
  3. land — ground
  4. row — a line
  5. content — happy
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. chip — in a computer
  8. kid — to tease
  9. row — to paddle
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. content — the amount
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. chip — for betting
  14. coach — a trainer
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. chip — to eat
  17. kid — child
  18. bat — the animal
  19. tear — from crying
  20. tear — to rip
  21. land — to come down
  22. tear — from crying
  23. land — a country
  24. bat — in an idiom

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