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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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Word bank
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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. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  2. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  3. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  4. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  5. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  6. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  9. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  10. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  18. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  19. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  20. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  21. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  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. hand — in cards
  2. bark — to shout
  3. snap — to speak sharply
  4. kick — a thrill
  5. kick — in football
  6. squash — to crush
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. snap — to snap out of it
  9. squash — the sport
  10. content — happy
  11. cold — not warm
  12. squash — the vegetable
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. snap — to click
  15. chest — of your body
  16. content — the amount
  17. bark — of a tree
  18. chest — of your body
  19. chest — a box
  20. kick — with a leg
  21. hand — help
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. cold — an illness
  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