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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 had a ________________ with my boss today.
  2. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  6. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  7. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  8. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  9. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  10. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  11. He was locked up in a ________________.
  12. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  13. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  14. He is an ace ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. How do you ________________ your surname?
  18. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  22. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  23. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a quarrel
  2. land — a country
  3. land — to come down
  4. content — happy
  5. row — a line
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. spell — magic
  8. cell — a phone
  9. row — to paddle
  10. content — videos and posts
  11. cell — in a prison
  12. cue — a signal
  13. spell — a short time
  14. pitcher — in baseball
  15. clip — a video
  16. content — the amount
  17. spell — letters
  18. pitcher — a jug
  19. clip — for paper
  20. land — ground
  21. cell — in biology
  22. cue — for pool
  23. cue — a hint
  24. clip — to cut

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