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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. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  2. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  3. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  7. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  8. He was locked up in a ________________.
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  11. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  12. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  17. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  21. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  22. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  2. content — the amount
  3. wave — with your hand
  4. content — happy
  5. kid — to tease
  6. branch — a division
  7. shower — rain
  8. cell — in a prison
  9. bat — the animal
  10. wave — of the sea
  11. branch — of a tree
  12. cell — a phone
  13. kid — child
  14. branch — of a bank
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. object — to protest
  17. shower — to wash
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. object — an aim
  21. cell — in biology
  22. object — a thing
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. wave — a sudden rise

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