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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. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  3. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  4. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  5. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  6. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  9. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  15. False peace will not ________________.
  16. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  19. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  23. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  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. chest — of your body
  2. bark — a dog's sound
  3. shower — rain
  4. trunk — of an elephant
  5. bark — of a tree
  6. bear — to put up with
  7. chest — of your body
  8. trunk — of a tree
  9. shower — a meteor shower
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. mine — an explosive
  12. cold — not warm
  13. shower — to wash
  14. bear — the animal
  15. last — to go on
  16. last — final
  17. last — finally
  18. trunk — of a car
  19. bark — to shout
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. cold — an illness
  22. bear — the animal
  23. mine — for digging
  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