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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. David sat on the ________________.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. That was a fun ________________.
  4. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  5. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  8. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  9. What do you think of the new ________________?
  10. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  11. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  14. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  15. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. swing — to play on
  2. degree — an amount
  3. game — a match
  4. file — a line of people
  5. content — the amount
  6. kid — to tease
  7. cabinet — ministers
  8. cabinet — a cupboard
  9. cabinet — ministers
  10. snap — to speak sharply
  11. snap — to click
  12. degree — temperature
  13. game — wild animals
  14. content — happy
  15. swing — in golf
  16. degree — from a university
  17. file — a document
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. snap — to snap out of it
  21. kid — child
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. swing — music
  24. file — a tool

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