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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 116 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. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  5. The King held a masked ________________.
  6. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  7. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  10. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  11. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  14. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  15. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  18. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  19. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  20. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  21. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  22. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  23. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  24. He was locked up in a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. lean — to bend
  2. degree — an amount
  3. content — happy
  4. perch — for a bird
  5. ball — a dance
  6. perch — for a bird
  7. perch — the fish
  8. degree — temperature
  9. content — the amount
  10. leaves — of a tree
  11. net — for catching
  12. degree — from a university
  13. cell — a phone
  14. lean — thin
  15. ball — a great time
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. leaves — lets stay
  18. lean — to rest against
  19. ball — a round shape
  20. cell — in biology
  21. leaves — to go away
  22. net — in sport
  23. net — after costs
  24. cell — in a prison

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