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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  4. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  5. She's very handy with a ________________.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  8. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  9. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  10. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  13. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  16. He is an ace ________________.
  17. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  18. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  19. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  20. He works in a ________________ mill.
  21. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  22. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. He had ________________ pain while walking.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. land — a country
  3. band — a rubber band
  4. pitcher — a jug
  5. saw — the tool
  6. land — ground
  7. net — for catching
  8. calf — a young animal
  9. kid — child
  10. saw — past of 'see'
  11. land — to come down
  12. pitcher — a jug
  13. band — a music group
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. kid — to tease
  16. pitcher — in baseball
  17. calf — a young animal
  18. band — a ring
  19. content — the amount
  20. saw — the tool
  21. net — in sport
  22. net — after costs
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. calf — of the leg

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