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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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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. You don't need to ________________ round.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  5. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  6. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  11. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  12. How do you ________________ your surname?
  13. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. Did you ________________ the meat?
  17. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  18. We're almost out of ________________.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  24. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pop — to visit
  2. content — happy
  3. chest — a box
  4. season — in sport
  5. bark — of a tree
  6. spell — a short time
  7. spring — the season
  8. land — a country
  9. spring — a coil
  10. pop — music
  11. bark — to shout
  12. spell — letters
  13. content — the amount
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. chest — of your body
  16. season — to add flavour
  17. bark — a dog's sound
  18. pop — soda
  19. spring — of water
  20. land — ground
  21. chest — of your body
  22. land — to come down
  23. season — of the year
  24. spell — magic

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