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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. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  7. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  10. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  11. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  12. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  13. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  14. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  17. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  18. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  19. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. When are we going to ________________?
  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. snap — to snap out of it
  2. land — a country
  3. content — happy
  4. content — the amount
  5. court — for sport
  6. mine — an explosive
  7. trunk — of a tree
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. mine — for digging
  10. chest — of your body
  11. bark — a dog's sound
  12. bark — of a tree
  13. trunk — of an elephant
  14. trunk — of a car
  15. chest — a box
  16. snap — to click
  17. court — of law
  18. bark — to shout
  19. court — of a king
  20. land — ground
  21. snap — to speak sharply
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. land — to come down
  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