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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  8. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  9. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  10. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  11. He works in a ________________ mill.
  12. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  13. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  14. She's very handy with a ________________.
  15. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  16. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  17. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  18. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  19. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  20. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. wind — to turn a key
  3. wind — moving air
  4. patient — calm and waiting
  5. field — for sport
  6. field — a subject
  7. wind — moving air
  8. mine — for digging
  9. saw — past of 'see'
  10. lean — thin
  11. saw — the tool
  12. lean — to rest against
  13. bark — of a tree
  14. saw — the tool
  15. bark — a dog's sound
  16. patient — a sick person
  17. patient — a sick person
  18. lean — to bend
  19. mine — belonging to me
  20. bark — to shout
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. content — the amount
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. field — farmland

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