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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. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  2. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  3. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  4. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  5. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. That was ________________ to happen.
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  11. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. There's no middle ________________.
  18. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  24. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — of a tree
  2. bark — a dog's sound
  3. cap — of ice
  4. file — a line of people
  5. cap — a lid
  6. cold — an illness
  7. capital — a city
  8. bound — certain
  9. file — a document
  10. cap — a hat
  11. ground — the earth
  12. file — a tool
  13. chest — a box
  14. chest — of your body
  15. chest — of your body
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. ground — a position
  18. bound — obliged
  19. cold — not warm
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. bark — to shout
  22. capital — money
  23. ground — crushed
  24. bound — tied together

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