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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. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  2. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  3. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  6. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  10. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  11. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  12. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  13. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  14. When are we going to ________________?
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  22. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  23. There's no middle ________________.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — a dog's sound
  2. bark — of a tree
  3. bark — to shout
  4. land — a country
  5. current — of water
  6. band — a ring
  7. cold — not warm
  8. chest — of your body
  9. current — happening now
  10. ground — the earth
  11. ground — crushed
  12. chest — of your body
  13. land — ground
  14. land — to come down
  15. cold — an illness
  16. field — farmland
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. field — a subject
  19. band — a music group
  20. field — for sport
  21. current — electric
  22. band — a rubber band
  23. ground — a position
  24. chest — a box

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