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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  9. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  12. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  13. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  14. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  15. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  16. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  17. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  18. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  19. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  20. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  21. The tickets are free of ________________.
  22. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  23. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  24. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. kick — in football
  3. field — farmland
  4. mine — for digging
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. shower — a meteor shower
  7. field — for sport
  8. kick — with a leg
  9. content — the amount
  10. field — a subject
  11. kick — a thrill
  12. mine — belonging to me
  13. squash — the vegetable
  14. squash — the sport
  15. squash — to crush
  16. shower — to wash
  17. charge — electricity
  18. band — a rubber band
  19. band — a ring
  20. content — videos and posts
  21. charge — a price
  22. shower — rain
  23. charge — in control
  24. band — a music group

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