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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. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  3. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  4. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  5. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  6. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  7. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  14. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  15. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  16. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  21. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  22. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  23. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. calf — a young animal
  4. rule — government
  5. rule — to rule out
  6. rule — a law
  7. perch — for a bird
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. chest — a box
  10. chest — of your body
  11. kick — a thrill
  12. bat — the animal
  13. kick — in football
  14. chest — of your body
  15. content — happy
  16. kick — with a leg
  17. content — the amount
  18. bowl — a football final
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. bowl — to roll
  21. perch — the fish
  22. calf — a young animal
  23. calf — of the leg
  24. bat — in an idiom

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