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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. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  3. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  4. When are we going to ________________?
  5. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  9. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. Did you ________________ the meat?
  15. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  21. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  22. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  23. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  24. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. wound — an injury
  3. squash — the sport
  4. land — to come down
  5. season — in sport
  6. land — ground
  7. chest — of your body
  8. wound — past of 'wind'
  9. season — of the year
  10. spring — the season
  11. bass — the instrument
  12. chest — a box
  13. spring — a coil
  14. season — to add flavour
  15. content — the amount
  16. chest — of your body
  17. bass — low music
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. spring — of water
  20. squash — the vegetable
  21. wound — an injury
  22. bass — the fish
  23. squash — to crush
  24. content — happy

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