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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. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  4. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  5. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  8. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  9. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  10. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  11. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — of a tree
  2. wind — moving air
  3. mine — belonging to me
  4. shower — rain
  5. kick — with a leg
  6. degree — temperature
  7. shower — to wash
  8. bark — to shout
  9. kick — a thrill
  10. mine — an explosive
  11. bark — a dog's sound
  12. degree — from a university
  13. degree — an amount
  14. mine — for digging
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. wind — to turn a key
  17. wind — moving air
  18. kick — in football

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