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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: saw · cold · straw · wound · spell · cell · chest · bark

  1. She's very handy with a ________________.
  2. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  3. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  6. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  9. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  12. He was locked up in a ________________.
  13. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. He works in a ________________ mill.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. saw — the tool
  2. bark — to shout
  3. wound — an injury
  4. spell — letters
  5. chest — of your body
  6. saw — past of 'see'
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. bark — a dog's sound
  9. cell — a phone
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. spell — magic
  12. cell — in a prison
  13. wound — past of 'wind'
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. wound — an injury
  16. cold — not warm
  17. cold — an illness
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. spell — a short time
  20. chest — of your body
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. chest — a box
  23. saw — the tool
  24. cell — in biology

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