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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. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  7. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  8. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  11. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  12. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  13. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  14. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  15. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  18. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  19. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  20. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  23. That was ________________ to happen.
  24. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. perch — the fish
  3. chest — a box
  4. mine — belonging to me
  5. content — happy
  6. content — videos and posts
  7. prune — to trim
  8. prune — to trim
  9. land — ground
  10. mine — an explosive
  11. wind — moving air
  12. bound — obliged
  13. chest — of your body
  14. wind — to turn a key
  15. bound — tied together
  16. land — to come down
  17. mine — for digging
  18. prune — the fruit
  19. chest — of your body
  20. perch — for a bird
  21. land — a country
  22. perch — for a bird
  23. bound — certain
  24. wind — moving air

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