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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  3. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  4. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  7. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  8. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  9. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. David sat on the ________________.
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. Did you ________________ the meat?
  14. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  17. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. Have you settled on a ________________?
  20. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. swing — in golf
  3. season — in sport
  4. band — a ring
  5. land — to come down
  6. season — of the year
  7. shower — rain
  8. mine — for digging
  9. band — a music group
  10. shower — to wash
  11. swing — to play on
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. season — to add flavour
  14. swing — music
  15. land — a country
  16. shower — a meteor shower
  17. date — the fruit
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. date — on the calendar
  20. date — on the calendar
  21. land — ground
  22. mine — belonging to me
  23. content — the amount
  24. band — a rubber band

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