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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  8. We're on a ________________ here.
  9. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  10. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  11. Don't do anything ________________.
  12. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  18. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  23. The ________________ market has crashed.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. content — happy
  3. rash — on the skin
  4. game — a match
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. staff — employees
  8. roll — on a roll
  9. stock — goods
  10. mine — an explosive
  11. rash — hasty
  12. staff — employees
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. rash — a series
  15. degree — from a university
  16. degree — temperature
  17. roll — a list
  18. roll — a cake
  19. game — wild animals
  20. stock — a soup base
  21. content — the amount
  22. staff — a stick
  23. stock — shares
  24. mine — for digging

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