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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. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  6. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  7. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  10. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. It's one o'clock ________________.
  13. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  14. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  15. Did you ________________ the button?
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  18. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  21. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  22. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. spell — letters
  3. bore — gave birth
  4. game — a match
  5. game — wild animals
  6. bore — to drill
  7. wake — a trail
  8. content — the amount
  9. wake — before a funeral
  10. press — a publisher
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. sharp — exactly
  13. spell — a short time
  14. sharp — clever
  15. press — to push
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. bore — to tire
  18. spell — magic
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. sharp — with an edge
  21. content — videos and posts
  22. wake — to stop sleeping
  23. bat — the animal
  24. press — newspapers

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