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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. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  4. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  5. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  6. The King held a masked ________________.
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  10. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  11. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. How do you ________________ your surname?
  17. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  18. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  21. That was ________________ to happen.
  22. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  23. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  24. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. chest — of your body
  3. spell — magic
  4. cue — a hint
  5. tear — from crying
  6. ball — a dance
  7. tear — from crying
  8. bat — the animal
  9. ball — a round shape
  10. cue — for pool
  11. bound — obliged
  12. content — the amount
  13. tear — to rip
  14. chest — a box
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. spell — letters
  17. spell — a short time
  18. bound — tied together
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. content — videos and posts
  21. bound — certain
  22. ball — a great time
  23. chest — of your body
  24. cue — a signal

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