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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 120 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. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  2. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  3. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  4. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  5. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  6. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  7. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  8. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  9. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  10. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  11. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  12. It's one o'clock ________________.
  13. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  14. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  15. He is an ace ________________.
  16. How do you ________________ your surname?
  17. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  18. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  19. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  20. The ________________ took off on time.
  21. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  22. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  23. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  24. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — with an edge
  2. bark — of a tree
  3. drill — the tool
  4. wound — past of 'wind'
  5. wound — an injury
  6. drill — army training
  7. sharp — clever
  8. bark — to shout
  9. spell — a short time
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. pitcher — a jug
  12. sharp — exactly
  13. branch — a division
  14. drill — a practice
  15. pitcher — in baseball
  16. spell — letters
  17. wound — an injury
  18. branch — of a tree
  19. plane — a tool
  20. plane — an aircraft
  21. spell — magic
  22. plane — in geometry
  23. bark — a dog's sound
  24. branch — of a bank

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