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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 120 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. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  2. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. He is an ace ________________.
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  7. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  8. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  9. The ball is in your ________________.
  10. False peace will not ________________.
  11. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  12. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  13. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  16. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  17. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  20. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  21. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  22. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  23. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. court — of a king
  3. capital — money
  4. pitcher — in baseball
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. bark — of a tree
  7. tear — to rip
  8. wake — to stop sleeping
  9. court — for sport
  10. last — to go on
  11. last — finally
  12. wake — before a funeral
  13. pitcher — a jug
  14. capital — a city
  15. wake — a trail
  16. tear — from crying
  17. court — of law
  18. tear — from crying
  19. last — final
  20. row — a line
  21. bark — to shout
  22. bark — a dog's sound
  23. capital — a big letter
  24. row — to paddle

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