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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. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  4. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  5. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  6. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  7. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  8. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  9. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. What do you think of the new ________________?
  15. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  16. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  17. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  18. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  23. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  24. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.

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. track — to keep track
  4. cabinet — a cupboard
  5. club — for dancing
  6. wound — an injury
  7. track — a path
  8. bark — of a tree
  9. club — for golf
  10. spring — the season
  11. bark — a dog's sound
  12. shower — to wash
  13. spring — of water
  14. cabinet — ministers
  15. cabinet — ministers
  16. track — a song
  17. wound — past of 'wind'
  18. shower — rain
  19. spring — a coil
  20. bark — to shout
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. club — a group
  23. wound — an injury
  24. content — videos and posts

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