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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. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  20. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  24. Do you need a ________________ with that?

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

Answer key

  1. file — a line of people
  2. file — a tool
  3. shower — a meteor shower
  4. content — happy
  5. kid — to tease
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. shower — rain
  8. file — a document
  9. degree — an amount
  10. hand — in cards
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. content — the amount
  13. degree — from a university
  14. stick — a piece of wood
  15. degree — temperature
  16. bat — the animal
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. stick — a piece of wood
  20. stick — to attach or keep to
  21. kid — child
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. shower — to wash
  24. hand — help

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