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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 120 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. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  3. You don't need to ________________ round.
  4. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. We're almost out of ________________.
  7. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  8. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  9. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  10. The King held a masked ________________.
  11. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  12. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. What do you think of the new ________________?
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  23. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  24. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. bark — of a tree
  3. pop — to visit
  4. pop — music
  5. content — happy
  6. pop — soda
  7. cabinet — a cupboard
  8. bark — to shout
  9. hand — part of the body
  10. ball — a dance
  11. cabinet — ministers
  12. ball — a round shape
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. file — a line of people
  15. file — a tool
  16. ball — a great time
  17. content — the amount
  18. cabinet — ministers
  19. hand — in cards
  20. kick — with a leg
  21. file — a document
  22. kick — a thrill
  23. bark — a dog's sound
  24. kick — in football

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