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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. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  2. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  3. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  4. David sat on the ________________.
  5. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. The ________________ market has crashed.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  10. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  11. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  12. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  13. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  18. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  19. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.

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

Answer key

  1. content — videos and posts
  2. present — there
  3. rest — a break
  4. swing — to play on
  5. stock — goods
  6. clip — for paper
  7. stock — shares
  8. content — the amount
  9. swing — in golf
  10. present — a gift
  11. content — happy
  12. stock — a soup base
  13. swing — music
  14. clip — a video
  15. rest — what's left
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. bark — of a tree
  18. present — the time now
  19. bark — a dog's sound
  20. clip — to cut
  21. cold — an illness
  22. bark — to shout
  23. cold — not warm
  24. rest — what's left

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