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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. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  4. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  5. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  6. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  7. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  11. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  12. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  13. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  14. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  19. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  20. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  21. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  22. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. bat — the animal
  3. wind — to turn a key
  4. snap — to click
  5. wound — an injury
  6. wound — an injury
  7. racket — for tennis
  8. content — happy
  9. wind — moving air
  10. cap — a hat
  11. racket — a loud noise
  12. snap — to snap out of it
  13. deal — to handle
  14. wind — moving air
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. cap — of ice
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. deal — a big deal
  19. snap — to speak sharply
  20. racket — for tennis
  21. deal — an agreement
  22. cap — a lid
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. wound — past of 'wind'

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