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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  6. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  7. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  8. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  9. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  10. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  11. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  12. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  13. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  14. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  15. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  16. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  19. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  20. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  21. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  22. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  23. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. swing — to play on
  2. degree — from a university
  3. content — happy
  4. row — a line
  5. snap — to speak sharply
  6. content — the amount
  7. dip — to dunk
  8. face — to point toward
  9. content — videos and posts
  10. snap — to snap out of it
  11. snap — to click
  12. swing — music
  13. object — a thing
  14. row — a quarrel
  15. degree — an amount
  16. object — to protest
  17. row — to paddle
  18. dip — a sauce
  19. face — to confront
  20. dip — to sink
  21. object — an aim
  22. face — part of the head
  23. swing — in golf
  24. degree — temperature

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