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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. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  8. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  9. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  12. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  13. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  16. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  17. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. It's one o'clock ________________.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  23. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  24. He's quite ________________, isn't he?

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

Answer key

  1. bark — a dog's sound
  2. march — the month
  3. mouse — the animal
  4. degree — from a university
  5. net — in sport
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. mouse — for a computer
  8. file — a tool
  9. march — the month
  10. degree — temperature
  11. bark — to shout
  12. sharp — with an edge
  13. net — for catching
  14. degree — an amount
  15. march — music
  16. straw — dry grass
  17. mouse — the animal
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. file — a document
  20. sharp — exactly
  21. file — a line of people
  22. net — after costs
  23. bark — of a tree
  24. sharp — clever

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