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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. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  3. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. How do you ________________ your surname?
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  10. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  11. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  12. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  13. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  14. She's very handy with a ________________.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  17. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  18. He works in a ________________ mill.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  21. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  22. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  23. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  24. The ball is in your ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. spell — a short time
  3. court — of law
  4. bat — the animal
  5. content — the amount
  6. kid — to tease
  7. spell — letters
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. calf — of the leg
  10. scale — in music
  11. saw — past of 'see'
  12. scale — for weighing
  13. spell — magic
  14. saw — the tool
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. scale — size or range
  17. calf — a young animal
  18. saw — the tool
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. content — videos and posts
  21. calf — a young animal
  22. content — happy
  23. court — of a king
  24. court — for sport

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