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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: snap · chest · content · land · deal · straw · sharp · bark

  1. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. It's one o'clock ________________.
  3. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. When are we going to ________________?
  9. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  10. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  13. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  14. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  15. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  21. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  22. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. This knife is not ________________ enough.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. sharp — exactly
  3. snap — to speak sharply
  4. land — a country
  5. sharp — clever
  6. chest — of your body
  7. bark — to shout
  8. land — to come down
  9. deal — a big deal
  10. bark — a dog's sound
  11. chest — a box
  12. bark — of a tree
  13. snap — to click
  14. straw — to clutch at straws
  15. deal — an agreement
  16. chest — of your body
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. content — the amount
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. content — happy
  21. snap — to snap out of it
  22. deal — to handle
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. sharp — with an edge

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