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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 116 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.

Words on the sheet
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Word bank
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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: bark · cold · perch · rash · squash · face · mark · degree

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  3. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  4. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  5. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  6. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  10. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  13. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  14. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  15. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  16. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  17. Don't do anything ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  20. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  21. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  24. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. bark — of a tree
  3. rash — on the skin
  4. mark — to pay attention
  5. perch — for a bird
  6. perch — the fish
  7. cold — an illness
  8. degree — from a university
  9. face — to confront
  10. squash — to crush
  11. cold — not warm
  12. face — to point toward
  13. rash — a series
  14. mark — a trace
  15. mark — a grade
  16. squash — the sport
  17. rash — hasty
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. squash — the vegetable
  20. bark — a dog's sound
  21. bark — to shout
  22. degree — temperature
  23. face — part of the head
  24. perch — for a bird

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