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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  4. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  5. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  11. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  16. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  20. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  21. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. field — farmland
  3. root — of a word
  4. shower — a meteor shower
  5. content — the amount
  6. tear — to rip
  7. bat — the animal
  8. field — for sport
  9. shower — rain
  10. pit — a fruit stone
  11. racket — for tennis
  12. field — a subject
  13. shower — to wash
  14. tear — from crying
  15. root — the cause
  16. racket — for tennis
  17. tear — from crying
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. pit — a hole
  20. root — of a plant
  21. pit — in a race
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. racket — a loud noise

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