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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 116 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. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  3. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  4. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  5. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  6. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  7. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  10. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  18. Have you found your soul ________________?
  19. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  24. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. perch — the fish
  3. row — a quarrel
  4. tear — from crying
  5. bark — of a tree
  6. bark — to shout
  7. mate — to breed
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. mate — a friend
  10. row — a line
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. tear — from crying
  13. perch — for a bird
  14. hand — in cards
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. bark — a dog's sound
  18. mate — a partner
  19. content — happy
  20. row — to paddle
  21. tear — to rip
  22. content — the amount
  23. perch — for a bird
  24. bat — the animal

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