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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. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  10. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  11. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  12. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  13. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. David sat on the ________________.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  23. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  24. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.

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

Answer key

  1. content — videos and posts
  2. spring — the season
  3. spring — a coil
  4. spring — of water
  5. clip — for paper
  6. field — a subject
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. field — for sport
  9. hand — part of the body
  10. straw — dry grass
  11. prune — to trim
  12. hand — in cards
  13. hand — help
  14. field — farmland
  15. clip — a video
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. swing — to play on
  18. content — the amount
  19. swing — music
  20. clip — to cut
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. content — happy
  23. swing — in golf
  24. prune — to trim

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