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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. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  2. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  6. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  7. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  8. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  9. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  10. The ball is in your ________________.
  11. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  12. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  17. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  20. Don't do anything ________________.
  21. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  22. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  23. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  24. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — to sit on
  2. spring — of water
  3. spring — the season
  4. spring — a coil
  5. content — videos and posts
  6. wax — for sculpting
  7. deal — to handle
  8. chair — a leader
  9. content — the amount
  10. court — for sport
  11. wax — in the ear
  12. kid — to tease
  13. court — of a king
  14. wax — to grow
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. rash — on the skin
  17. chair — a professorship
  18. kid — child
  19. court — of law
  20. rash — hasty
  21. content — happy
  22. rash — a series
  23. deal — a big deal
  24. deal — an agreement

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