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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: mine · chest · hand · race · game · content · cell · wake

  1. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  2. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  3. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  4. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  5. He was locked up in a ________________.
  6. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  7. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. That was a fun ________________.
  14. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  15. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  16. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  19. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  20. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  21. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  22. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  23. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — belonging to me
  2. mine — an explosive
  3. race — humankind
  4. chest — a box
  5. cell — in a prison
  6. mine — for digging
  7. wake — a trail
  8. chest — of your body
  9. content — videos and posts
  10. content — the amount
  11. hand — help
  12. chest — of your body
  13. game — a match
  14. game — wild animals
  15. cell — a phone
  16. race — a contest
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. wake — before a funeral
  19. race — the arms race
  20. cell — in biology
  21. game — a kind of play
  22. content — happy
  23. wake — to stop sleeping
  24. hand — in cards

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