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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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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 · ground · court · bark · roll · dip · fall

  1. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  4. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  5. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  6. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  10. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  15. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  16. We're on a ________________ here.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. There's no middle ________________.
  19. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  20. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  21. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  24. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.

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

Answer key

  1. roll — a cake
  2. content — happy
  3. fall — to drop
  4. bark — a dog's sound
  5. fall — to drop
  6. bark — of a tree
  7. bark — to shout
  8. hand — help
  9. ground — crushed
  10. roll — a list
  11. court — for sport
  12. court — of a king
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. dip — to dunk
  15. hand — in cards
  16. roll — on a roll
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. ground — a position
  19. ground — the earth
  20. dip — to sink
  21. fall — the season
  22. content — the amount
  23. court — of law
  24. dip — a sauce

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