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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. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  2. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  7. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  8. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  9. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  10. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  11. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  12. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  13. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  16. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  19. Have you met the new head ________________?
  20. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  23. That was a fun ________________.
  24. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — pulled by horses
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. content — happy
  4. cap — of ice
  5. clip — to cut
  6. coach — a trainer
  7. game — wild animals
  8. game — a kind of play
  9. cap — a hat
  10. fan — a supporter
  11. content — videos and posts
  12. fan — to cool the air
  13. chest — of your body
  14. clip — a video
  15. snap — to snap out of it
  16. snap — to click
  17. content — the amount
  18. snap — to speak sharply
  19. coach — a trainer
  20. chest — a box
  21. clip — for paper
  22. cap — a lid
  23. game — a match
  24. chest — of your body

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