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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. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  6. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  7. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  8. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  11. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  12. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  15. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  16. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  17. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  20. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  21. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  22. I'll be taking the ________________.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tube — a container
  2. kid — child
  3. hide — animal skin
  4. bat — the animal
  5. perch — for a bird
  6. snap — to click
  7. content — the amount
  8. snap — to speak sharply
  9. kid — to tease
  10. snap — to snap out of it
  11. race — the arms race
  12. tube — in a tire
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. hide — to keep secret
  15. hide — to keep secret
  16. race — a contest
  17. race — humankind
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. perch — the fish
  20. content — happy
  21. perch — for a bird
  22. tube — the underground
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. content — videos and posts

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