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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 116 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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Word bank
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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: content · clip · bear · mate · rock · kid · can · bat

  1. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  2. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  3. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  4. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  7. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. Have you found your soul ________________?
  10. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  11. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  12. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  13. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  23. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  24. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.

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

Answer key

  1. rock — music
  2. mate — a friend
  3. content — the amount
  4. can — a tin
  5. kid — to tease
  6. bear — to put up with
  7. content — happy
  8. kid — child
  9. mate — a partner
  10. can — a tin
  11. bear — the animal
  12. bear — the animal
  13. can — to be able to
  14. bat — the animal
  15. clip — for paper
  16. rock — a stone
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. clip — to cut
  19. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. clip — a video
  22. bat — in an idiom
  23. rock — to move gently
  24. mate — to breed

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