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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  3. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  6. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  7. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  8. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  9. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  12. You don't need to ________________ round.
  13. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  14. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  15. David sat on the ________________.
  16. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  17. We're almost out of ________________.
  18. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  21. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  22. How do you ________________ your surname?
  23. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  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. content — happy
  2. content — the amount
  3. swing — in golf
  4. cold — not warm
  5. cue — a signal
  6. spell — a short time
  7. bass — low music
  8. bark — of a tree
  9. content — videos and posts
  10. cold — an illness
  11. bark — to shout
  12. pop — to visit
  13. spell — magic
  14. bass — the fish
  15. swing — to play on
  16. cue — for pool
  17. pop — soda
  18. swing — music
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. pop — music
  21. cue — a hint
  22. spell — letters
  23. bass — the instrument
  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