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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. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  2. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  3. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  4. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  13. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  14. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  19. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  23. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. drill — a practice
  2. pound — to hit hard
  3. bark — to shout
  4. fork — in a road
  5. kid — to tease
  6. chest — of your body
  7. spring — the season
  8. degree — from a university
  9. chest — of your body
  10. drill — army training
  11. kid — child
  12. bark — a dog's sound
  13. pound — for dogs
  14. drill — the tool
  15. chest — a box
  16. spring — of water
  17. degree — temperature
  18. bark — of a tree
  19. fork — to eat with
  20. spring — a coil
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. pound — a weight
  23. fork — a garden tool
  24. degree — an amount

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