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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. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  2. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  3. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  4. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  10. The tickets are free of ________________.
  11. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  12. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  13. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. The ball is in your ________________.
  16. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  20. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  21. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  22. How do you ________________ your surname?
  23. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  24. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — the tool
  2. game — wild animals
  3. charge — in control
  4. bark — to shout
  5. clip — a video
  6. game — a match
  7. charge — electricity
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. game — a kind of play
  10. charge — a price
  11. court — of law
  12. bark — a dog's sound
  13. drill — a practice
  14. spell — a short time
  15. court — for sport
  16. drill — army training
  17. clip — for paper
  18. clip — to cut
  19. content — the amount
  20. spell — magic
  21. content — happy
  22. spell — letters
  23. bark — of a tree
  24. court — of a king

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