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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  5. Have you found your soul ________________?
  6. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  9. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  10. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  11. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  14. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  15. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  16. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  22. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. bark — of a tree
  3. field — farmland
  4. squash — the vegetable
  5. mate — a partner
  6. stick — a piece of wood
  7. clip — for paper
  8. squash — the sport
  9. bark — to shout
  10. bark — a dog's sound
  11. squash — to crush
  12. field — for sport
  13. dip — a sauce
  14. stick — a piece of wood
  15. stick — to attach or keep to
  16. dip — to sink
  17. clip — a video
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. mate — a friend
  20. field — a subject
  21. dip — to dunk
  22. mate — to breed
  23. content — the amount
  24. clip — to cut

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