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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 120 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 · chair · squash · hand · wind · bulb · kid · net

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  6. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  7. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  8. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. The light ________________ burned out.
  12. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  13. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  14. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  15. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. I've got to change the light ________________.
  18. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  19. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  20. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  23. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  24. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. squash — the vegetable
  3. wind — moving air
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. content — videos and posts
  6. net — for catching
  7. chair — a leader
  8. bulb — of a plant
  9. hand — in cards
  10. content — the amount
  11. bulb — for light
  12. squash — the sport
  13. net — in sport
  14. net — after costs
  15. content — happy
  16. kid — child
  17. bulb — for light
  18. chair — a professorship
  19. squash — to crush
  20. kid — to tease
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. wind — moving air
  23. chair — to sit on
  24. wind — to turn a key

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