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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. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  3. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  4. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. I can't ________________ this cold.
  7. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  8. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  9. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  12. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  16. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  17. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  18. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  21. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  22. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  23. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  24. When are we going to ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. bark — to shout
  3. drill — army training
  4. prune — the fruit
  5. cold — an illness
  6. stand — to bear
  7. prune — to trim
  8. prune — to trim
  9. scale — size or range
  10. cold — not warm
  11. drill — the tool
  12. land — ground
  13. tear — from crying
  14. tear — from crying
  15. stand — on your feet
  16. stand — for spectators
  17. bark — of a tree
  18. land — a country
  19. tear — to rip
  20. scale — in music
  21. scale — for weighing
  22. drill — a practice
  23. bark — a dog's sound
  24. land — to come down

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