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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: hand · rule · pit · charge · content · chest · kid · game

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  7. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  8. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  12. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  13. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  18. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  19. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  20. The tickets are free of ________________.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. chest — of your body
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. hand — in cards
  5. game — a match
  6. charge — electricity
  7. pit — in a race
  8. rule — government
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. content — the amount
  11. content — happy
  12. pit — a hole
  13. pit — a fruit stone
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. hand — help
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. charge — in control
  18. rule — to rule out
  19. rule — a law
  20. charge — a price
  21. kid — child
  22. chest — a box
  23. game — wild animals
  24. chest — of your body

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