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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 didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  3. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  7. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  10. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  13. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  19. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  20. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  21. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  24. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. wake — to stop sleeping
  3. leaves — of a tree
  4. chest — of your body
  5. chest — a box
  6. hide — to keep secret
  7. wake — before a funeral
  8. clip — to cut
  9. mine — an explosive
  10. pound — to hit hard
  11. clip — for paper
  12. mine — for digging
  13. leaves — lets stay
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. clip — a video
  16. chest — of your body
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. wake — a trail
  19. pound — for dogs
  20. hide — to keep secret
  21. leaves — to go away
  22. content — the amount
  23. pound — a weight
  24. hide — animal skin

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