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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. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  2. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  8. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  9. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  14. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  22. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  23. There's no middle ________________.
  24. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.

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

Answer key

  1. cue — a hint
  2. bark — of a tree
  3. chest — of your body
  4. track — a path
  5. chest — a box
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. pitch — a sports field
  8. ground — crushed
  9. ground — the earth
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. bark — a dog's sound
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. pitch — completely
  14. track — a song
  15. chest — of your body
  16. track — to keep track
  17. cold — an illness
  18. pitch — a sales talk
  19. bat — the animal
  20. cold — not warm
  21. bark — to shout
  22. cue — a signal
  23. ground — a position
  24. cue — for pool

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