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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 ball hit the back of the ________________.
  2. It's one o'clock ________________.
  3. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  4. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  5. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  11. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  12. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  13. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  14. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  15. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  16. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  19. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  20. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. The ________________ market has crashed.
  23. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  24. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. net — in sport
  2. sharp — exactly
  3. bark — to shout
  4. tear — from crying
  5. sharp — clever
  6. tear — to rip
  7. patient — a sick person
  8. field — for sport
  9. spring — of water
  10. patient — calm and waiting
  11. sharp — with an edge
  12. stock — a soup base
  13. bark — of a tree
  14. spring — a coil
  15. bark — a dog's sound
  16. patient — a sick person
  17. spring — the season
  18. stock — goods
  19. net — after costs
  20. net — for catching
  21. field — a subject
  22. stock — shares
  23. tear — from crying
  24. field — farmland

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