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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. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  2. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  3. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  4. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  10. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  11. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  14. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  19. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  20. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  21. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a kind of play
  2. dip — to sink
  3. bark — a dog's sound
  4. branch — of a bank
  5. kid — to tease
  6. bark — of a tree
  7. bark — to shout
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. branch — of a tree
  10. root — the cause
  11. scale — for weighing
  12. cold — not warm
  13. root — of a plant
  14. dip — a sauce
  15. game — a match
  16. game — wild animals
  17. kid — child
  18. branch — a division
  19. dip — to dunk
  20. root — of a word
  21. scale — in music
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. scale — size or range
  24. cold — an illness

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