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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 120 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. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  4. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  12. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  13. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  14. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  17. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  20. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  23. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. snap — to click
  3. content — videos and posts
  4. snap — to speak sharply
  5. capital — a city
  6. land — a country
  7. content — the amount
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. bark — of a tree
  10. land — to come down
  11. land — ground
  12. foot — the bottom
  13. foot — a measure
  14. bark — a dog's sound
  15. chest — of your body
  16. foot — part of the body
  17. snap — to snap out of it
  18. chest — a box
  19. prune — to trim
  20. content — happy
  21. chest — of your body
  22. prune — the fruit
  23. bark — to shout
  24. capital — money

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