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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.

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: cold · degree · bark · drill · straw · spell · lash · row

  1. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  6. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  9. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  10. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  11. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  16. How do you ________________ your surname?
  17. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  18. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  19. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  20. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  21. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  22. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  23. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — a short time
  2. cold — an illness
  3. lash — to lash out
  4. cold — not warm
  5. drill — a practice
  6. straw — dry grass
  7. bark — to shout
  8. straw — a straw man
  9. spell — magic
  10. drill — army training
  11. row — to paddle
  12. degree — temperature
  13. row — a quarrel
  14. degree — from a university
  15. degree — an amount
  16. spell — letters
  17. lash — an eyelash
  18. row — a line
  19. lash — a whip stroke
  20. bark — of a tree
  21. bark — a dog's sound
  22. drill — the tool
  23. straw — to clutch at straws
  24. cold — the Cold War

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