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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. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  6. False peace will not ________________.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  9. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  10. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  11. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  12. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  13. There's no middle ________________.
  14. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  19. It's one o'clock ________________.
  20. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  23. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  24. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mouse — the animal
  2. content — happy
  3. chest — of your body
  4. field — farmland
  5. row — a line
  6. last — to go on
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. last — final
  9. content — the amount
  10. ground — crushed
  11. ground — the earth
  12. mouse — for a computer
  13. ground — a position
  14. last — finally
  15. chest — a box
  16. row — to paddle
  17. field — a subject
  18. row — a quarrel
  19. sharp — exactly
  20. sharp — clever
  21. field — for sport
  22. sharp — with an edge
  23. mouse — the animal
  24. chest — of your body

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