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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: bat · wave · prune · kid · content · cell · mine · foot

  1. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  10. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  11. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  12. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  19. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  22. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  23. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  24. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. content — happy
  3. cell — a phone
  4. kid — child
  5. wave — with your hand
  6. bat — the animal
  7. content — the amount
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. prune — to trim
  10. mine — for digging
  11. wave — of the sea
  12. foot — part of the body
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. cell — in biology
  19. prune — the fruit
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. wave — a sudden rise
  22. kid — to tease
  23. foot — the bottom
  24. foot — a measure

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