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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.

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 · stock · rock · chest · field · ball · kid · plane

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. The King held a masked ________________.
  3. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  4. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. The ________________ market has crashed.
  9. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  10. The ________________ took off on time.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  21. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  22. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  23. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  24. The kitten curled into a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. ball — a dance
  3. rock — music
  4. content — the amount
  5. chest — of your body
  6. plane — a tool
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. stock — shares
  9. stock — a soup base
  10. plane — an aircraft
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. kid — child
  13. field — farmland
  14. stock — goods
  15. chest — of your body
  16. kid — to tease
  17. field — a subject
  18. ball — a great time
  19. field — for sport
  20. chest — a box
  21. rock — a stone
  22. plane — in geometry
  23. rock — to move gently
  24. ball — a round shape

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