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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. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  4. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  5. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  6. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  7. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  10. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  18. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  19. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  20. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  21. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  22. The ________________ market has crashed.
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. field — farmland
  3. wax — in the ear
  4. bark — a dog's sound
  5. drill — a practice
  6. file — a tool
  7. stock — a soup base
  8. content — happy
  9. file — a line of people
  10. tear — from crying
  11. file — a document
  12. wax — to grow
  13. field — a subject
  14. field — for sport
  15. bark — of a tree
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. drill — the tool
  18. tear — to rip
  19. drill — army training
  20. wax — for sculpting
  21. bark — to shout
  22. stock — shares
  23. content — the amount
  24. stock — goods

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