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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. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  2. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  3. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  8. The ________________ went through the wall.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  11. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  12. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  16. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  17. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  24. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.

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

Answer key

  1. rock — music
  2. nail — for a hammer
  3. trunk — of an elephant
  4. spring — a coil
  5. trunk — of a car
  6. row — a line
  7. nail — on a finger
  8. nail — for a hammer
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. bark — of a tree
  11. scale — for weighing
  12. rock — a stone
  13. capital — a city
  14. capital — money
  15. scale — in music
  16. scale — size or range
  17. trunk — of a tree
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. spring — of water
  20. row — to paddle
  21. bark — a dog's sound
  22. spring — the season
  23. rock — to move gently
  24. bark — to shout

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