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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. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  6. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  14. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  15. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  24. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?

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

Answer key

  1. kick — in football
  2. content — happy
  3. stem — of a plant
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. kick — a thrill
  6. stem — a stem cell
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. present — there
  9. kid — to tease
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. dip — to dunk
  12. field — a subject
  13. stem — to come from
  14. kick — with a leg
  15. dip — to sink
  16. content — the amount
  17. field — for sport
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. dip — a sauce
  20. bat — the animal
  21. kid — child
  22. field — farmland
  23. present — the time now
  24. present — a gift

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