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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. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  2. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  4. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  5. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  6. The ________________ market has crashed.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  9. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  10. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  21. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  22. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  23. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  24. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — a dog's sound
  2. spring — the season
  3. bark — to shout
  4. degree — temperature
  5. stock — a soup base
  6. stock — shares
  7. spring — a coil
  8. net — in sport
  9. bark — of a tree
  10. lean — thin
  11. degree — an amount
  12. wake — a trail
  13. spring — of water
  14. lean — to rest against
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. stock — goods
  17. cold — an illness
  18. cold — not warm
  19. degree — from a university
  20. lean — to bend
  21. net — for catching
  22. wake — before a funeral
  23. net — after costs
  24. wake — to stop sleeping

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