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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. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  2. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  6. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  7. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  8. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  9. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  10. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  14. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  15. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  16. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  17. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  18. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  19. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  20. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  23. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  24. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. current — happening now
  2. bark — of a tree
  3. degree — an amount
  4. degree — from a university
  5. race — the arms race
  6. bark — a dog's sound
  7. wind — to turn a key
  8. race — humankind
  9. calf — a young animal
  10. capital — a city
  11. degree — temperature
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. prune — to trim
  14. race — a contest
  15. calf — of the leg
  16. current — of water
  17. wind — moving air
  18. prune — the fruit
  19. current — electric
  20. wind — moving air
  21. capital — money
  22. bark — to shout
  23. prune — to trim
  24. calf — a young animal

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