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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. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  3. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  8. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. He was locked up in a ________________.
  13. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  21. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. Do you need a ________________ with that?

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. cap — a lid
  3. tear — to rip
  4. hand — in cards
  5. cell — a phone
  6. tear — from crying
  7. fine — a penalty
  8. fine — all right
  9. field — a subject
  10. content — videos and posts
  11. degree — an amount
  12. cell — in a prison
  13. cap — of ice
  14. field — for sport
  15. cap — a hat
  16. field — farmland
  17. degree — from a university
  18. content — happy
  19. tear — from crying
  20. cell — in biology
  21. fine — high quality
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. degree — temperature
  24. hand — help

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