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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. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. There's no middle ________________.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  9. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  10. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  14. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  15. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  16. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  17. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  18. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  19. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  22. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. calf — of the leg
  3. content — happy
  4. ground — a position
  5. shower — to wash
  6. bark — of a tree
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. ground — crushed
  9. pound — to hit hard
  10. bark — to shout
  11. content — the amount
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. hand — help
  14. calf — a young animal
  15. bark — a dog's sound
  16. ground — the earth
  17. march — music
  18. shower — rain
  19. march — the month
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. calf — a young animal
  22. pound — a weight
  23. hand — in cards
  24. pound — for dogs

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