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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: content · hand · tear · bark · game · bulb · prune · wound

  1. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  3. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  9. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. That was a fun ________________.
  14. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  15. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  16. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  20. The light ________________ burned out.
  21. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  22. I've got to change the light ________________.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. bulb — of a plant
  3. wound — an injury
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. prune — to trim
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. game — wild animals
  9. bark — to shout
  10. tear — from crying
  11. content — happy
  12. hand — help
  13. game — a match
  14. wound — past of 'wind'
  15. bark — a dog's sound
  16. prune — to trim
  17. tear — to rip
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. bark — of a tree
  20. bulb — for light
  21. wound — an injury
  22. bulb — for light
  23. hand — in cards
  24. tear — from crying

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