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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. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  2. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  3. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  4. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  12. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  16. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  19. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  20. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  24. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — of a tree
  2. root — of a plant
  3. cap — a hat
  4. tear — from crying
  5. content — happy
  6. scale — size or range
  7. bark — to shout
  8. tear — to rip
  9. shower — to wash
  10. cold — not warm
  11. bark — a dog's sound
  12. root — of a word
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. tear — from crying
  15. cap — of ice
  16. cap — a lid
  17. cold — an illness
  18. shower — rain
  19. scale — for weighing
  20. content — the amount
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. root — the cause
  24. scale — in music

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