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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. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  2. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  3. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  4. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  10. Did you ________________ the meat?
  11. False peace will not ________________.
  12. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  13. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  14. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  15. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  16. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  17. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  18. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  19. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  20. I can't ________________ this cold.
  21. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  22. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  23. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  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. bark — a dog's sound
  2. bark — of a tree
  3. rule — a law
  4. last — final
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. cold — not warm
  7. last — finally
  8. cold — an illness
  9. wound — past of 'wind'
  10. season — to add flavour
  11. last — to go on
  12. wound — an injury
  13. season — of the year
  14. rule — to rule out
  15. band — a ring
  16. wound — an injury
  17. rule — government
  18. stand — on your feet
  19. season — in sport
  20. stand — to bear
  21. band — a music group
  22. stand — for spectators
  23. band — a rubber band
  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