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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. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. That was ________________ to happen.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  7. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  8. Did you ________________ the meat?
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. The ________________ market has crashed.
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  20. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  21. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  22. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  23. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  24. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. field — farmland
  3. clip — for paper
  4. bound — certain
  5. degree — temperature
  6. degree — an amount
  7. bound — obliged
  8. season — to add flavour
  9. clip — a video
  10. content — happy
  11. clip — to cut
  12. stock — shares
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. stock — goods
  15. degree — from a university
  16. season — of the year
  17. field — a subject
  18. field — for sport
  19. season — in sport
  20. drill — the tool
  21. stock — a soup base
  22. drill — a practice
  23. drill — army training
  24. bound — tied together

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