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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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  3. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  4. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  5. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  13. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  14. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  19. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  20. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  23. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  24. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. object — a thing
  3. content — the amount
  4. fork — a garden tool
  5. content — videos and posts
  6. wind — moving air
  7. row — a quarrel
  8. field — farmland
  9. field — for sport
  10. row — to paddle
  11. wind — moving air
  12. wind — to turn a key
  13. snap — to speak sharply
  14. row — a line
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. object — to protest
  17. field — a subject
  18. snap — to snap out of it
  19. content — happy
  20. fork — to eat with
  21. shower — rain
  22. snap — to click
  23. fork — in a road
  24. object — an aim

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