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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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 · land · court · press · sharp · snap · cell · bass

  1. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  4. Did you ________________ the button?
  5. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. He was locked up in a ________________.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  12. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  13. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  14. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  17. It's one o'clock ________________.
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  20. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  23. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  24. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. snap — to click
  3. bass — low music
  4. press — to push
  5. court — of a king
  6. land — to come down
  7. cell — in a prison
  8. content — happy
  9. cell — a phone
  10. content — the amount
  11. cell — in biology
  12. press — newspapers
  13. bass — the fish
  14. sharp — clever
  15. land — a country
  16. court — of law
  17. sharp — exactly
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. snap — to snap out of it
  20. bass — the instrument
  21. land — ground
  22. sharp — with an edge
  23. press — a publisher
  24. snap — to speak sharply

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