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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 120 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. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  3. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  6. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  7. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  8. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  9. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  10. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  11. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  12. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  13. This piece is in a major ________________.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  18. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  22. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  23. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. content — the amount
  3. wake — to stop sleeping
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. can — a tin
  6. key — the most important part
  7. snap — to speak sharply
  8. mark — a grade
  9. mark — to pay attention
  10. wake — before a funeral
  11. snap — to click
  12. key — for a lock
  13. key — in music
  14. degree — an amount
  15. degree — from a university
  16. cold — not warm
  17. can — a tin
  18. wake — a trail
  19. degree — temperature
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. mark — a trace
  22. can — to be able to
  23. snap — to snap out of it
  24. cold — an illness

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