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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. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  3. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  4. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  7. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  8. Have you settled on a ________________?
  9. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  10. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  11. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  12. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  13. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  14. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  19. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  20. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  23. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  24. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. pound — to hit hard
  3. straw — to clutch at straws
  4. scale — size or range
  5. hand — in cards
  6. trunk — of an elephant
  7. hand — help
  8. date — on the calendar
  9. pound — a weight
  10. scale — in music
  11. bark — of a tree
  12. bark — a dog's sound
  13. scale — for weighing
  14. pound — for dogs
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. court — of a king
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. trunk — of a tree
  19. date — the fruit
  20. date — on the calendar
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. trunk — of a car
  23. court — of law
  24. bark — to shout

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