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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  4. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  5. Have you found your soul ________________?
  6. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  7. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  8. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  9. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  12. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  13. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  14. The ball is in your ________________.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  19. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  20. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  21. How do you ________________ your surname?
  22. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. clip — to cut
  3. content — videos and posts
  4. file — a line of people
  5. mate — a partner
  6. scale — for weighing
  7. court — of a king
  8. court — of law
  9. row — a line
  10. clip — for paper
  11. scale — size or range
  12. row — to paddle
  13. spell — magic
  14. court — for sport
  15. file — a document
  16. mate — a friend
  17. content — the amount
  18. mate — to breed
  19. scale — in music
  20. row — a quarrel
  21. spell — letters
  22. spell — a short time
  23. file — a tool
  24. clip — a video

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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