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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 116 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. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  6. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  7. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  8. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  9. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  10. That was a fun ________________.
  11. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  14. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  17. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  20. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  21. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  22. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  23. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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. game — a kind of play
  5. prune — to trim
  6. content — happy
  7. drill — army training
  8. band — a music group
  9. drill — the tool
  10. game — a match
  11. tear — to rip
  12. spring — of water
  13. tear — from crying
  14. drill — a practice
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. prune — to trim
  17. band — a ring
  18. hand — help
  19. content — the amount
  20. band — a rubber band
  21. tear — from crying
  22. hand — in cards
  23. prune — the fruit
  24. game — wild animals

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