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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. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  2. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  3. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  6. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  7. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  8. The ball is in your ________________.
  9. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  10. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  11. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  12. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  13. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  16. I'll be taking the ________________.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  19. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  22. David sat on the ________________.
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — an explosive
  2. face — part of the head
  3. swing — in golf
  4. mine — for digging
  5. face — to point toward
  6. content — videos and posts
  7. tube — a container
  8. court — for sport
  9. fan — to cool the air
  10. tube — in a tire
  11. court — of law
  12. content — happy
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. swing — music
  16. tube — the underground
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. face — to confront
  19. mine — belonging to me
  20. bat — the animal
  21. fan — a supporter
  22. swing — to play on
  23. content — the amount
  24. court — of a king

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