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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. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  2. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  3. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  6. That must've been a ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  10. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  13. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  17. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  20. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  21. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  24. The ball hit the back of the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. foot — a measure
  2. bark — of a tree
  3. foot — the bottom
  4. march — music
  5. rush — hurry
  6. rush — a thrill
  7. cold — an illness
  8. file — a document
  9. bark — a dog's sound
  10. branch — of a tree
  11. march — the month
  12. net — for catching
  13. bark — to shout
  14. cold — not warm
  15. file — a tool
  16. foot — part of the body
  17. march — the month
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. net — after costs
  20. rush — to hurry
  21. branch — of a bank
  22. file — a line of people
  23. branch — a division
  24. net — in sport

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