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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. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  3. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  4. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  5. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. He was locked up in a ________________.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  10. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  16. When was this ________________ built?
  17. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  18. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  19. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  20. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  21. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  22. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  23. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  24. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. fine — high quality
  3. content — the amount
  4. object — an aim
  5. object — to protest
  6. land — to come down
  7. cell — in a prison
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. temple — side of the head
  10. temple — a place of worship
  11. bat — the animal
  12. fine — all right
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. land — a country
  15. cell — a phone
  16. temple — a place of worship
  17. fine — a penalty
  18. prune — to trim
  19. prune — to trim
  20. content — videos and posts
  21. prune — the fruit
  22. object — a thing
  23. cell — in biology
  24. land — ground

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