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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  3. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  4. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  5. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  10. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  11. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  12. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  15. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  16. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. shower — rain
  3. staff — a stick
  4. content — the amount
  5. shower — a meteor shower
  6. kid — to tease
  7. cell — a phone
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. kid — child
  10. lie — to recline
  11. bark — a dog's sound
  12. lie — an untruth
  13. shower — to wash
  14. staff — employees
  15. staff — employees
  16. cell — in biology
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. lie — an untruth
  19. degree — an amount
  20. degree — temperature
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. bark — to shout
  23. degree — from a university
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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