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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. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  2. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  3. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  4. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  5. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  6. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  9. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  17. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  21. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  22. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — a dog's sound
  2. scale — in music
  3. current — happening now
  4. bark — to shout
  5. bark — of a tree
  6. band — a rubber band
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. scale — size or range
  9. current — of water
  10. spring — of water
  11. spring — a coil
  12. current — electric
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. cold — not warm
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. band — a music group
  17. band — a ring
  18. cold — an illness
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. spring — the season
  21. scale — for weighing
  22. straw — a straw man
  23. wind — moving air
  24. wind — moving air

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