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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. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  2. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  3. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  4. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  5. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  6. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  7. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  8. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  12. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  13. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  14. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  15. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  16. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  17. We're almost out of ________________.
  18. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. You don't need to ________________ round.
  21. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  22. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. rock — to move gently
  2. bark — a dog's sound
  3. branch — of a tree
  4. wax — to grow
  5. pop — music
  6. bark — to shout
  7. wound — an injury
  8. wound — past of 'wind'
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. cold — an illness
  11. branch — of a bank
  12. rock — a stone
  13. wax — for sculpting
  14. wound — an injury
  15. branch — a division
  16. bark — of a tree
  17. pop — soda
  18. wax — in the ear
  19. cold — not warm
  20. pop — to visit
  21. rock — music
  22. row — a line
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. row — to paddle

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