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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. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  9. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  10. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  11. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  12. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. That must've been a ________________.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  23. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  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 — of a tree
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. band — a music group
  4. row — a line
  5. cold — an illness
  6. bore — gave birth
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. band — a rubber band
  9. bore — to drill
  10. rush — hurry
  11. chest — of your body
  12. bark — to shout
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. rush — to hurry
  15. kid — child
  16. bark — a dog's sound
  17. row — to paddle
  18. rush — a thrill
  19. kid — to tease
  20. chest — of your body
  21. cold — not warm
  22. band — a ring
  23. bore — to tire
  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