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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. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  2. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. I'll be taking the ________________.
  5. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  6. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  9. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  10. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  11. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  12. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  13. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  14. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  15. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  16. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  17. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  20. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  21. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  22. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  23. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  24. She got the top ________________ in the exam.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. tube — the underground
  5. squash — the sport
  6. root — the cause
  7. cold — not warm
  8. fan — to cool the air
  9. squash — the vegetable
  10. mark — a trace
  11. bark — to shout
  12. trunk — of a car
  13. bark — of a tree
  14. trunk — of an elephant
  15. mark — to pay attention
  16. bark — a dog's sound
  17. tube — in a tire
  18. cold — an illness
  19. root — of a plant
  20. squash — to crush
  21. tube — a container
  22. root — of a word
  23. trunk — of a tree
  24. mark — a grade

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