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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 116 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. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. He is an ace ________________.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. The King held a masked ________________.
  5. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  6. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  7. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  10. How do you ________________ your surname?
  11. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  12. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  13. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  14. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  15. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  16. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  17. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  20. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  21. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  22. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  23. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  24. Check the label for the sugar ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. pitcher — in baseball
  3. content — happy
  4. ball — a dance
  5. straw — a straw man
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. perch — the fish
  8. cold — an illness
  9. bark — of a tree
  10. spell — letters
  11. content — videos and posts
  12. bark — to shout
  13. spell — a short time
  14. perch — for a bird
  15. spell — magic
  16. pitcher — a jug
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. cold — not warm
  19. bark — a dog's sound
  20. straw — dry grass
  21. ball — a great time
  22. straw — to clutch at straws
  23. ball — a round shape
  24. content — the amount

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