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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. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  10. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  11. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  12. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. David sat on the ________________.
  18. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  21. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  22. There's no middle ________________.
  23. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  24. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — a meteor shower
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. march — the month
  4. march — music
  5. ground — the earth
  6. capital — money
  7. scale — size or range
  8. shower — rain
  9. kid — child
  10. ground — crushed
  11. bark — to shout
  12. scale — in music
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. shower — to wash
  15. march — the month
  16. capital — a city
  17. swing — to play on
  18. bark — a dog's sound
  19. kid — to tease
  20. swing — in golf
  21. scale — for weighing
  22. ground — a position
  23. swing — music
  24. bark — of a tree

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