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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 116 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 · stem · lie · kid · cold · scale · land · bark

  1. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  10. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  11. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  12. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  13. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  14. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  17. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  18. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  19. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  20. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  23. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. lie — an untruth
  2. kid — to tease
  3. content — videos and posts
  4. land — ground
  5. stem — to come from
  6. kid — child
  7. cold — not warm
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. bark — to shout
  10. stem — of a plant
  11. scale — in music
  12. stem — a stem cell
  13. content — the amount
  14. content — happy
  15. cold — an illness
  16. land — a country
  17. bark — of a tree
  18. bark — a dog's sound
  19. lie — an untruth
  20. scale — size or range
  21. land — to come down
  22. scale — for weighing
  23. lie — to recline
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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