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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 116 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. The water is too ________________.
  3. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  4. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  11. He was locked up in a ________________.
  12. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  13. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  14. My mare is ________________ in color.
  15. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  16. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  21. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  24. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!

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

Answer key

  1. bark — of a tree
  2. cold — not warm
  3. tear — to rip
  4. bark — to shout
  5. kid — child
  6. cell — in biology
  7. land — to come down
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. land — ground
  10. bay — to keep at bay
  11. cell — in a prison
  12. kid — to tease
  13. bark — a dog's sound
  14. bay — a horse colour
  15. bay — a part of the sea
  16. club — for dancing
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. tear — from crying
  19. cold — an illness
  20. club — a group
  21. tear — from crying
  22. land — a country
  23. club — for golf
  24. cell — a phone

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