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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. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  2. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  3. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. The ball is in your ________________.
  7. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  12. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  13. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  14. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  15. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  16. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  17. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  18. That was a fun ________________.
  19. He is an ace ________________.
  20. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  21. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  22. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  23. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — a dog's sound
  2. game — wild animals
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. spell — letters
  5. content — happy
  6. court — for sport
  7. court — of a king
  8. field — farmland
  9. content — the amount
  10. field — a subject
  11. content — videos and posts
  12. bark — of a tree
  13. pitcher — a jug
  14. band — a music group
  15. court — of law
  16. band — a rubber band
  17. spell — magic
  18. game — a match
  19. pitcher — in baseball
  20. spell — a short time
  21. bark — to shout
  22. game — a kind of play
  23. band — a ring
  24. field — for sport

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