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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. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  2. My father caught me by the ________________.
  3. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  4. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  5. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  6. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  7. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  8. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  12. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  13. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  14. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  17. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  18. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  19. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  20. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  24. He took the fish out of the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. arm — part of the body
  3. perch — for a bird
  4. rock — to move gently
  5. content — videos and posts
  6. dip — to dunk
  7. rock — music
  8. dip — to sink
  9. content — happy
  10. cold — an illness
  11. dip — a sauce
  12. arm — a part of something
  13. rock — a stone
  14. arm — part of the body
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. net — in sport
  17. cell — a phone
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. content — the amount
  20. cell — in biology
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. cold — not warm
  23. perch — the fish
  24. net — for catching

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