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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. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  2. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. He was locked up in a ________________.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  9. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. She's very handy with a ________________.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  16. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  17. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  23. He works in a ________________ mill.
  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. current — of water
  2. court — for sport
  3. chest — a box
  4. cell — a phone
  5. spring — a coil
  6. cell — in a prison
  7. spring — the season
  8. court — of law
  9. current — electric
  10. spring — of water
  11. saw — the tool
  12. degree — from a university
  13. content — happy
  14. degree — an amount
  15. cell — in biology
  16. saw — past of 'see'
  17. chest — of your body
  18. chest — of your body
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. court — of a king
  21. degree — temperature
  22. current — happening now
  23. saw — the tool
  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