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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. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  5. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  8. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  9. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. That was a fun ________________.
  14. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  20. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  21. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  24. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. racket — for tennis
  3. content — happy
  4. wound — past of 'wind'
  5. perch — the fish
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. wound — an injury
  8. march — music
  9. perch — for a bird
  10. file — a document
  11. file — a line of people
  12. file — a tool
  13. game — a match
  14. perch — for a bird
  15. game — wild animals
  16. bat — the animal
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. wound — an injury
  20. racket — for tennis
  21. racket — a loud noise
  22. march — the month
  23. march — the month
  24. game — a kind of play

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