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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 116 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. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  4. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  9. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  17. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  18. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  19. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  20. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  23. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  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. fan — a supporter
  2. hand — help
  3. bark — a dog's sound
  4. wax — for sculpting
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. cold — an illness
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. root — of a plant
  9. bark — of a tree
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. hand — in cards
  12. cold — not warm
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. kid — child
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. wax — to grow
  17. root — of a word
  18. fan — to cool the air
  19. mine — for digging
  20. root — the cause
  21. kid — to tease
  22. fan — a supporter
  23. wax — in the ear
  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