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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. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  2. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  3. Have you settled on a ________________?
  4. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  5. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  6. The ball is in your ________________.
  7. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  8. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  9. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  12. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  13. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  14. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  15. She's very handy with a ________________.
  16. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  17. He works in a ________________ mill.
  18. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  19. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  20. We're on a ________________ here.
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  23. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — a dog's sound
  2. drill — a practice
  3. date — on the calendar
  4. roll — a list
  5. chest — of your body
  6. court — for sport
  7. bark — of a tree
  8. drill — the tool
  9. saw — past of 'see'
  10. land — to come down
  11. chest — of your body
  12. land — a country
  13. court — of law
  14. date — on the calendar
  15. saw — the tool
  16. court — of a king
  17. saw — the tool
  18. drill — army training
  19. date — the fruit
  20. roll — on a roll
  21. land — ground
  22. roll — a cake
  23. bark — to shout
  24. chest — a box

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