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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. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  2. We're on a ________________ here.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  5. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  6. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  7. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  8. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  9. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  12. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  13. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  17. That must've been a ________________.
  18. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  19. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  20. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  23. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. roll — on a roll
  3. cold — an illness
  4. bark — of a tree
  5. pitch — a sales talk
  6. content — the amount
  7. content — happy
  8. rush — hurry
  9. roll — a cake
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. tear — to rip
  12. roll — a list
  13. pitch — completely
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. file — a document
  16. pitch — a sports field
  17. rush — a thrill
  18. bark — a dog's sound
  19. bark — to shout
  20. tear — from crying
  21. cold — not warm
  22. file — a tool
  23. rush — to hurry
  24. file — a line of people

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