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

  1. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  4. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  7. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  10. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  11. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  12. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  13. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  16. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  17. This piece is in a major ________________.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — a subject
  2. tear — from crying
  3. tear — from crying
  4. content — the amount
  5. content — happy
  6. snap — to speak sharply
  7. bark — a dog's sound
  8. game — a match
  9. snap — to snap out of it
  10. field — farmland
  11. key — the most important part
  12. game — a kind of play
  13. bark — to shout
  14. hand — in cards
  15. key — for a lock
  16. snap — to click
  17. key — in music
  18. hand — help
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. tear — to rip
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. field — for sport
  23. hand — part of the body
  24. game — wild animals

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