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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: cold · scale · bark · tear · chest · hide

  1. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  4. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  5. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  6. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  7. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  8. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  9. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  12. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  15. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  18. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. scale — size or range
  2. cold — an illness
  3. hide — to keep secret
  4. bark — a dog's sound
  5. scale — for weighing
  6. scale — in music
  7. tear — to rip
  8. tear — from crying
  9. hide — animal skin
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. chest — of your body
  12. bark — to shout
  13. cold — not warm
  14. hide — to keep secret
  15. tear — from crying
  16. chest — a box
  17. chest — of your body
  18. 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