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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. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  4. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  5. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. Have you settled on a ________________?
  10. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  13. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  14. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  15. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  16. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  17. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  18. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  19. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  20. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  21. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  22. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  23. The ________________ took off on time.
  24. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — to shout
  2. content — happy
  3. prune — to trim
  4. prune — the fruit
  5. tear — to rip
  6. wind — moving air
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. tear — from crying
  9. date — on the calendar
  10. bark — of a tree
  11. content — the amount
  12. wind — moving air
  13. bark — a dog's sound
  14. row — a quarrel
  15. date — on the calendar
  16. row — to paddle
  17. row — a line
  18. plane — in geometry
  19. date — the fruit
  20. tear — from crying
  21. plane — a tool
  22. prune — to trim
  23. plane — an aircraft
  24. wind — to turn a key

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