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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  3. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  4. He was locked up in a ________________.
  5. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  8. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. There's no middle ________________.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  15. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  18. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  19. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  20. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  21. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  22. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  23. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. content — the amount
  3. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  4. cell — in a prison
  5. cell — in biology
  6. field — farmland
  7. rock — to move gently
  8. rock — music
  9. kid — to tease
  10. toast — a drink to someone
  11. field — for sport
  12. ground — a position
  13. kid — child
  14. toast — bread
  15. pound — to hit hard
  16. field — a subject
  17. toast — the most admired
  18. rock — a stone
  19. cell — a phone
  20. pound — a weight
  21. content — videos and posts
  22. pound — for dogs
  23. ground — crushed
  24. ground — the earth

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