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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  5. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  8. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  9. I can't ________________ this cold.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  14. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  15. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  16. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  20. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. stand — on your feet
  5. bark — a dog's sound
  6. shower — to wash
  7. content — the amount
  8. perch — the fish
  9. stand — to bear
  10. degree — from a university
  11. clip — a video
  12. degree — an amount
  13. shower — rain
  14. bark — of a tree
  15. stand — for spectators
  16. bark — to shout
  17. clip — to cut
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. content — videos and posts
  21. bat — the animal
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. degree — temperature
  24. clip — for paper

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