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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. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  6. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  9. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  10. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  11. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  12. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  13. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  14. The ________________ went through the wall.
  15. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  16. Have you found your soul ________________?
  17. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  20. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  21. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  24. Check the label for the sugar ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. wound — an injury
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. spell — letters
  5. spell — magic
  6. spell — a short time
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. wound — an injury
  9. mate — to breed
  10. nail — for a hammer
  11. wound — past of 'wind'
  12. chair — a professorship
  13. chair — to sit on
  14. nail — for a hammer
  15. bat — the animal
  16. mate — a partner
  17. mate — a friend
  18. court — for sport
  19. court — of law
  20. chair — a leader
  21. nail — on a finger
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. court — of a king
  24. content — the amount

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