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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: field · bore · pound · kid · content · cell · snap · stock

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  3. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  4. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  5. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. The ________________ market has crashed.
  10. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  11. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  12. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  13. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  14. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  15. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  18. He was locked up in a ________________.
  19. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  20. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. snap — to snap out of it
  3. kid — child
  4. bore — to drill
  5. content — the amount
  6. kid — to tease
  7. snap — to click
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. stock — shares
  10. cell — in biology
  11. bore — to tire
  12. stock — goods
  13. pound — for dogs
  14. stock — a soup base
  15. bore — gave birth
  16. field — farmland
  17. pound — to hit hard
  18. cell — in a prison
  19. pound — a weight
  20. snap — to speak sharply
  21. field — a subject
  22. field — for sport
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. cell — a phone

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