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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. Don't do anything ________________.
  2. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  7. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  10. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  11. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  12. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  21. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  24. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rash — hasty
  2. band — a rubber band
  3. spring — of water
  4. rash — a series
  5. spring — a coil
  6. file — a tool
  7. face — to point toward
  8. bat — the animal
  9. band — a music group
  10. bark — a dog's sound
  11. face — part of the head
  12. bark — to shout
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. face — to confront
  15. file — a document
  16. content — the amount
  17. rash — on the skin
  18. spring — the season
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. content — happy
  21. content — videos and posts
  22. file — a line of people
  23. bark — of a tree
  24. band — a ring

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