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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. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  2. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  3. There's no middle ________________.
  4. It's one o'clock ________________.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  13. He was locked up in a ________________.
  14. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  15. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  16. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  22. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  23. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  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. fan — a supporter
  2. can — a tin
  3. ground — a position
  4. sharp — exactly
  5. cell — a phone
  6. sharp — clever
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. can — to be able to
  11. bat — the animal
  12. cell — in biology
  13. cell — in a prison
  14. ground — crushed
  15. fan — a supporter
  16. sharp — with an edge
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. can — a tin
  19. cold — an illness
  20. cold — not warm
  21. fan — to cool the air
  22. ground — the earth
  23. content — happy
  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