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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 116 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. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  2. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  3. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  4. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  5. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  6. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  7. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  10. You don't need to ________________ round.
  11. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  12. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  13. We're almost out of ________________.
  14. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  18. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  19. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  20. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. That was a fun ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bore — to tire
  2. net — for catching
  3. pop — music
  4. net — in sport
  5. net — after costs
  6. bore — to drill
  7. present — a gift
  8. kid — to tease
  9. kid — child
  10. pop — to visit
  11. game — a kind of play
  12. content — happy
  13. pop — soda
  14. game — wild animals
  15. file — a document
  16. file — a tool
  17. present — there
  18. bore — gave birth
  19. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  20. present — the time now
  21. file — a line of people
  22. content — the amount
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. game — a match

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