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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 116 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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  6. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  7. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  10. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  17. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  18. Did you ________________ the meat?
  19. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  20. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  21. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  24. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. net — after costs
  3. chair — to sit on
  4. hand — help
  5. chair — a professorship
  6. wake — before a funeral
  7. content — the amount
  8. bat — the animal
  9. present — a gift
  10. wake — a trail
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. net — for catching
  13. hand — in cards
  14. season — in sport
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. season — of the year
  17. net — in sport
  18. season — to add flavour
  19. present — there
  20. content — videos and posts
  21. chair — a leader
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. present — the time now
  24. wake — to stop sleeping

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