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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 dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  3. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  4. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  7. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  10. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  13. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  22. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  23. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  24. He is an ace ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — of a tree
  2. shower — a meteor shower
  3. branch — of a tree
  4. bark — to shout
  5. field — farmland
  6. drill — the tool
  7. track — a song
  8. cold — not warm
  9. pitcher — a jug
  10. drill — army training
  11. shower — rain
  12. track — to keep track
  13. branch — a division
  14. field — for sport
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. pitcher — a jug
  17. cold — an illness
  18. branch — of a bank
  19. field — a subject
  20. shower — to wash
  21. bark — a dog's sound
  22. track — a path
  23. drill — a practice
  24. pitcher — in baseball

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