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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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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 · wax · roll · land · mine · fan · cold · rash

  1. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. Don't do anything ________________.
  3. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  6. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  7. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  8. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  9. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  10. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  11. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  12. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  13. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. We're on a ________________ here.
  16. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  17. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  18. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  21. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. rash — hasty
  3. rash — a series
  4. land — ground
  5. fan — a supporter
  6. wax — in the ear
  7. wax — for sculpting
  8. fan — to cool the air
  9. bark — to shout
  10. rash — on the skin
  11. mine — belonging to me
  12. fan — a supporter
  13. roll — a cake
  14. mine — for digging
  15. roll — on a roll
  16. wax — to grow
  17. bark — of a tree
  18. mine — an explosive
  19. land — to come down
  20. land — a country
  21. roll — a list
  22. cold — an illness
  23. cold — not warm
  24. bark — a dog's sound

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