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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  2. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  5. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  6. The ________________ market has crashed.
  7. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  8. Did you ________________ the button?
  9. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  10. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  11. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  12. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  13. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  14. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — of a tree
  2. net — for catching
  3. capital — a city
  4. bark — to shout
  5. press — a publisher
  6. stock — shares
  7. net — after costs
  8. press — to push
  9. press — newspapers
  10. bark — a dog's sound
  11. net — in sport
  12. stock — a soup base
  13. stock — goods
  14. capital — a big letter
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. capital — money
  17. wind — moving air
  18. wind — moving air

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