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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: club · content · nail · lie · march · cold · bark · wound

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  3. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  4. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  7. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  8. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  9. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  10. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  11. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  12. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  16. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  17. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  18. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  19. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  20. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  21. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  22. The ________________ went through the wall.
  23. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. bark — to shout
  3. march — music
  4. march — the month
  5. march — the month
  6. lie — an untruth
  7. lie — to recline
  8. club — for golf
  9. bark — a dog's sound
  10. content — videos and posts
  11. bark — of a tree
  12. nail — on a finger
  13. cold — not warm
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. wound — past of 'wind'
  16. wound — an injury
  17. nail — for a hammer
  18. club — for dancing
  19. wound — an injury
  20. content — the amount
  21. lie — an untruth
  22. nail — for a hammer
  23. club — a group
  24. cold — an illness

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