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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. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  6. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. The ________________ market has crashed.
  10. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  13. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  16. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  21. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  22. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  24. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. bat — the animal
  3. bark — to shout
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. stock — goods
  6. straw — dry grass
  7. tear — from crying
  8. spring — a coil
  9. stock — shares
  10. bark — a dog's sound
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. lean — to bend
  13. lean — thin
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. march — the month
  16. stock — a soup base
  17. spring — of water
  18. lean — to rest against
  19. tear — to rip
  20. spring — the season
  21. march — music
  22. bark — of a tree
  23. march — the month
  24. straw — a straw man

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