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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  3. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  7. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  10. What do you think of the new ________________?
  11. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  12. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  13. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  14. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  15. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  16. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  17. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  21. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  24. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. pound — to hit hard
  3. content — videos and posts
  4. degree — an amount
  5. land — to come down
  6. cabinet — ministers
  7. racket — a loud noise
  8. degree — temperature
  9. racket — for tennis
  10. cabinet — ministers
  11. rest — what's left
  12. cabinet — a cupboard
  13. kid — to tease
  14. content — the amount
  15. racket — for tennis
  16. pound — for dogs
  17. land — ground
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. land — a country
  20. rest — a break
  21. rest — what's left
  22. degree — from a university
  23. pound — a weight
  24. kid — child

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