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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. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  6. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  11. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  12. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  13. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  14. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  15. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  24. There's no middle ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — to shout
  2. shower — to wash
  3. root — of a word
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. net — after costs
  6. ground — crushed
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. root — of a plant
  9. shower — rain
  10. root — the cause
  11. stem — of a plant
  12. stem — to come from
  13. bark — of a tree
  14. straw — to clutch at straws
  15. net — for catching
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. ground — the earth
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. net — in sport
  20. capital — a city
  21. bark — a dog's sound
  22. capital — money
  23. stem — a stem cell
  24. ground — a position

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