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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  3. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  4. The ________________ market has crashed.
  5. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  6. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  7. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  10. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  11. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  12. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  13. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  14. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. Did you ________________ the meat?
  19. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. He was locked up in a ________________.
  23. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  24. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. prune — to trim
  3. season — of the year
  4. stock — shares
  5. content — videos and posts
  6. content — happy
  7. wax — to grow
  8. kid — child
  9. prune — to trim
  10. stock — goods
  11. cell — in biology
  12. prune — the fruit
  13. stock — a soup base
  14. season — in sport
  15. spring — of water
  16. spring — the season
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. season — to add flavour
  19. wax — in the ear
  20. spring — a coil
  21. content — the amount
  22. cell — in a prison
  23. cell — a phone
  24. wax — for sculpting

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