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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: leaves · straw · roll · ground · bark · content · clip · wind

  1. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  5. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  6. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  9. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  10. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  11. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  15. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  19. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  20. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  21. There's no middle ________________.
  22. We're on a ________________ here.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — dry grass
  2. content — happy
  3. clip — a video
  4. bark — a dog's sound
  5. roll — a cake
  6. leaves — lets stay
  7. bark — to shout
  8. wind — moving air
  9. ground — crushed
  10. ground — the earth
  11. straw — a straw man
  12. clip — to cut
  13. wind — moving air
  14. straw — to clutch at straws
  15. leaves — to go away
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. content — the amount
  18. wind — to turn a key
  19. leaves — of a tree
  20. bark — of a tree
  21. ground — a position
  22. roll — on a roll
  23. clip — for paper
  24. roll — a list

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