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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 120 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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  4. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  10. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  11. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  12. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  13. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  14. That must've been a ________________.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. That was a fun ________________.
  19. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  20. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. David sat on the ________________.
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. degree — an amount
  3. cap — a hat
  4. swing — in golf
  5. kid — to tease
  6. kid — child
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. degree — from a university
  9. ruler — for measuring
  10. rush — hurry
  11. cap — a lid
  12. game — a kind of play
  13. swing — music
  14. rush — a thrill
  15. degree — temperature
  16. rush — to hurry
  17. game — wild animals
  18. game — a match
  19. cap — of ice
  20. ruler — a monarch
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. swing — to play on
  23. content — the amount
  24. ruler — for measuring

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