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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 water is too ________________.
  2. False peace will not ________________.
  3. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  4. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  5. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  6. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  7. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  8. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  14. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  15. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  16. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  17. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  18. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  19. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  20. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  24. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. last — to go on
  3. content — videos and posts
  4. net — for catching
  5. pound — for dogs
  6. pound — to hit hard
  7. march — the month
  8. net — in sport
  9. clip — to cut
  10. clip — a video
  11. cold — an illness
  12. clip — for paper
  13. bark — of a tree
  14. pound — a weight
  15. content — the amount
  16. bark — a dog's sound
  17. net — after costs
  18. bark — to shout
  19. last — final
  20. march — music
  21. march — the month
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. last — finally
  24. content — happy

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