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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: row · content · perch · field · tube · bark · cold · straw

  1. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  2. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  13. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  14. I'll be taking the ________________.
  15. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  16. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  22. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  23. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  24. Check the label for the sugar ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — of a tree
  2. row — a line
  3. cold — not warm
  4. straw — dry grass
  5. field — farmland
  6. straw — a straw man
  7. cold — an illness
  8. perch — for a bird
  9. field — a subject
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. field — for sport
  12. row — a quarrel
  13. bark — a dog's sound
  14. tube — the underground
  15. tube — a container
  16. content — happy
  17. row — to paddle
  18. perch — the fish
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. perch — for a bird
  22. tube — in a tire
  23. bark — to shout
  24. content — the amount

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