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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. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  3. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  4. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  5. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  6. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  7. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  8. The ________________ took off on time.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  15. Have you found your soul ________________?
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. pit — a fruit stone
  3. pit — a hole
  4. snap — to snap out of it
  5. plane — in geometry
  6. snap — to speak sharply
  7. plane — a tool
  8. plane — an aircraft
  9. content — happy
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. content — the amount
  12. cold — not warm
  13. cold — an illness
  14. snap — to click
  15. mate — a partner
  16. degree — from a university
  17. mate — a friend
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. mate — to breed
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. pit — in a race
  23. degree — temperature
  24. degree — an amount

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