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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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  3. Have you settled on a ________________?
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  12. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  13. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  14. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  15. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  19. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  22. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  23. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  24. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. trunk — of an elephant
  3. date — on the calendar
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. leaves — of a tree
  6. cold — an illness
  7. trunk — of a car
  8. content — happy
  9. date — on the calendar
  10. cold — not warm
  11. bark — to shout
  12. date — the fruit
  13. content — the amount
  14. leaves — lets stay
  15. bark — of a tree
  16. clip — a video
  17. clip — for paper
  18. trunk — of a tree
  19. bass — low music
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. bass — the instrument
  22. bass — the fish
  23. leaves — to go away
  24. bark — a dog's sound

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