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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  3. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  6. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  7. How do you ________________ your surname?
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  10. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  11. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  14. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  15. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  16. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  17. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  20. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  21. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. The polar ice ________________ is melting.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. present — there
  3. shower — a meteor shower
  4. spring — of water
  5. cap — a lid
  6. wind — moving air
  7. spell — letters
  8. spring — the season
  9. present — a gift
  10. cue — a signal
  11. wind — moving air
  12. spring — a coil
  13. shower — rain
  14. present — the time now
  15. spell — a short time
  16. shower — to wash
  17. spell — magic
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. cue — a hint
  20. cap — a hat
  21. cue — for pool
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. content — the amount
  24. cap — of ice

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