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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 120 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. She's very handy with a ________________.
  2. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  5. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  6. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  9. There's no middle ________________.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  13. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  16. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  17. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  18. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  19. He works in a ________________ mill.
  20. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  24. Many English words ________________ from Latin.

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

Answer key

  1. saw — the tool
  2. track — to keep track
  3. cold — not warm
  4. ground — crushed
  5. bark — a dog's sound
  6. bark — of a tree
  7. bark — to shout
  8. net — for catching
  9. ground — a position
  10. spring — of water
  11. spring — a coil
  12. saw — past of 'see'
  13. track — a song
  14. spring — the season
  15. stem — of a plant
  16. net — in sport
  17. ground — the earth
  18. track — a path
  19. saw — the tool
  20. net — after costs
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. cold — an illness
  23. stem — a stem cell
  24. stem — to come from

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