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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. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  2. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  7. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  12. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. There's no middle ________________.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  22. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. net — in sport
  2. fork — to eat with
  3. content — happy
  4. court — of a king
  5. court — for sport
  6. fork — a garden tool
  7. net — after costs
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. fork — in a road
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. cell — in biology
  12. net — for catching
  13. bat — the animal
  14. cell — a phone
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. hand — help
  17. ground — crushed
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. ground — a position
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. court — of law
  22. hand — in cards
  23. content — the amount
  24. ground — the earth

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