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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: drill · land · spring · pop · last · content · bark · court

  1. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  4. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  5. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  8. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  9. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  10. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  11. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  12. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  13. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  14. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  15. We're almost out of ________________.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. You don't need to ________________ round.
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  21. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  24. False peace will not ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. spring — the season
  3. last — finally
  4. bark — to shout
  5. drill — the tool
  6. land — ground
  7. drill — army training
  8. court — of law
  9. content — the amount
  10. content — happy
  11. pop — music
  12. drill — a practice
  13. bark — of a tree
  14. court — of a king
  15. pop — soda
  16. land — to come down
  17. pop — to visit
  18. court — for sport
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. land — a country
  21. last — final
  22. spring — of water
  23. bark — a dog's sound
  24. last — to go on

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