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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. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  6. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  7. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  10. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  11. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  18. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  19. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  24. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — a dog's sound
  2. content — happy
  3. race — humankind
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. bark — of a tree
  6. mark — a trace
  7. mark — to pay attention
  8. clip — a video
  9. snap — to click
  10. race — a contest
  11. snap — to snap out of it
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. race — the arms race
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. clip — for paper
  16. clip — to cut
  17. face — to confront
  18. mark — a grade
  19. face — to point toward
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. bark — to shout
  22. content — the amount
  23. face — part of the head
  24. bat — the animal

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