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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  3. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  4. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  5. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  6. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  7. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  8. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  9. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  13. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. It's one o'clock ________________.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. How do you ________________ your surname?
  20. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  21. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  24. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. wound — an injury
  3. spell — magic
  4. sharp — with an edge
  5. net — in sport
  6. net — for catching
  7. bark — a dog's sound
  8. bark — of a tree
  9. sharp — clever
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. wound — an injury
  13. wound — past of 'wind'
  14. cold — an illness
  15. sharp — exactly
  16. spring — the season
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. spring — of water
  19. spell — letters
  20. spell — a short time
  21. bark — to shout
  22. spring — a coil
  23. net — after costs
  24. bat — the animal

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