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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. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  3. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  4. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. The tickets are free of ________________.
  9. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  10. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  11. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  12. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  13. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  14. That was a fun ________________.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  17. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  18. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  19. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  20. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  21. He was locked up in a ________________.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. Where can I ________________ my mobile?

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. game — wild animals
  3. chair — a professorship
  4. cap — a lid
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. cap — of ice
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. charge — a price
  9. cap — a hat
  10. present — a gift
  11. charge — in control
  12. game — a kind of play
  13. chair — a leader
  14. game — a match
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. cell — in biology
  17. present — there
  18. present — the time now
  19. chair — to sit on
  20. cell — a phone
  21. cell — in a prison
  22. content — the amount
  23. bat — the animal
  24. charge — electricity

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