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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. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  5. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  6. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  7. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  8. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  9. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  13. He is an ace ________________.
  14. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  15. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  16. False peace will not ________________.
  17. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  18. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  19. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  20. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  21. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  22. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  23. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  24. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.

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

Answer key

  1. hide — to keep secret
  2. degree — an amount
  3. degree — from a university
  4. bark — of a tree
  5. hide — to keep secret
  6. last — finally
  7. hide — animal skin
  8. root — of a plant
  9. pitcher — a jug
  10. wound — an injury
  11. degree — temperature
  12. row — to paddle
  13. pitcher — in baseball
  14. bark — a dog's sound
  15. row — a line
  16. last — to go on
  17. wound — past of 'wind'
  18. row — a quarrel
  19. last — final
  20. root — of a word
  21. bark — to shout
  22. pitcher — a jug
  23. wound — an injury
  24. root — the cause

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