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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. Don't do anything ________________.
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. There's no middle ________________.
  6. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  7. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  10. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. The ball is in your ________________.
  15. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  16. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  19. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  20. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  21. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  24. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.

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

Answer key

  1. rash — hasty
  2. ground — crushed
  3. court — of law
  4. file — a tool
  5. ground — a position
  6. mouse — the animal
  7. bark — a dog's sound
  8. chest — of your body
  9. mouse — the animal
  10. bark — of a tree
  11. chest — a box
  12. rash — on the skin
  13. court — of a king
  14. court — for sport
  15. row — a line
  16. file — a line of people
  17. file — a document
  18. ground — the earth
  19. rash — a series
  20. mouse — for a computer
  21. bark — to shout
  22. row — to paddle
  23. row — a quarrel
  24. chest — of your body

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