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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. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  3. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  4. There's no middle ________________.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  7. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  8. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  9. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  10. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  17. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  18. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  19. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  24. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. kick — a thrill
  3. chip — in a computer
  4. ground — a position
  5. land — ground
  6. chip — to eat
  7. kick — with a leg
  8. wake — to stop sleeping
  9. wake — before a funeral
  10. chip — for betting
  11. degree — an amount
  12. chest — of your body
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. degree — from a university
  15. chest — of your body
  16. land — a country
  17. ground — crushed
  18. kick — in football
  19. content — happy
  20. degree — temperature
  21. chest — a box
  22. land — to come down
  23. ground — the earth
  24. wake — a trail

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