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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. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  2. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  3. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  17. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  20. Don't do anything ________________.
  21. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  22. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  23. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  24. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.

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

Answer key

  1. scale — size or range
  2. shower — a meteor shower
  3. bark — of a tree
  4. cold — not warm
  5. cold — an illness
  6. shower — rain
  7. bark — to shout
  8. foot — a measure
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. rash — a series
  11. file — a line of people
  12. shower — to wash
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. rash — on the skin
  15. file — a document
  16. bark — a dog's sound
  17. scale — in music
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. foot — part of the body
  20. rash — hasty
  21. scale — for weighing
  22. file — a tool
  23. straw — to clutch at straws
  24. foot — the bottom

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