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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. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  8. The ________________ went through the wall.
  9. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  10. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  11. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  21. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  22. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  23. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  24. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — dry grass
  2. content — happy
  3. content — the amount
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. hand — in cards
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. perch — for a bird
  8. nail — for a hammer
  9. nail — on a finger
  10. bass — low music
  11. straw — a straw man
  12. hand — help
  13. perch — the fish
  14. file — a line of people
  15. bass — the instrument
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. file — a document
  18. file — a tool
  19. capital — money
  20. bass — the fish
  21. capital — a city
  22. nail — for a hammer
  23. capital — a big letter
  24. perch — for a bird

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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