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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  5. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  6. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  7. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  8. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  9. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. This piece is in a major ________________.
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  19. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  20. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  21. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  22. The ball is in your ________________.
  23. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  24. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. jam — to spread on bread
  3. content — happy
  4. chair — a professorship
  5. key — for a lock
  6. key — the most important part
  7. jam — a tight spot
  8. jam — in traffic
  9. chair — a leader
  10. hand — help
  11. content — the amount
  12. chair — to sit on
  13. hand — in cards
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. key — in music
  17. kid — child
  18. fall — to drop
  19. fall — to drop
  20. fall — the season
  21. content — videos and posts
  22. court — for sport
  23. court — of a king
  24. court — of law

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