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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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  3. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. The ball is in your ________________.
  9. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  10. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  11. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  14. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  15. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  16. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  17. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  20. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. He was locked up in a ________________.
  23. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. court — of a king
  3. spell — magic
  4. spell — letters
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. row — a line
  7. row — to paddle
  8. court — for sport
  9. cell — a phone
  10. content — happy
  11. scale — in music
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. snap — to speak sharply
  14. scale — for weighing
  15. spell — a short time
  16. court — of law
  17. scale — size or range
  18. content — the amount
  19. row — a quarrel
  20. snap — to snap out of it
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. cell — in a prison
  23. straw — dry grass
  24. cell — in biology

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