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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 120 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: stock · mark · cold · wound · tear · cell · wind · bark

  1. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  2. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  5. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  6. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  11. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  12. He was locked up in a ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  17. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. The ________________ market has crashed.
  20. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  21. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  22. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  23. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  24. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!

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

Answer key

  1. wind — to turn a key
  2. bark — to shout
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. mark — a grade
  5. tear — from crying
  6. bark — of a tree
  7. wound — an injury
  8. bark — a dog's sound
  9. wind — moving air
  10. mark — to pay attention
  11. wound — an injury
  12. cell — in a prison
  13. cold — not warm
  14. tear — from crying
  15. tear — to rip
  16. mark — a trace
  17. wound — past of 'wind'
  18. cold — an illness
  19. stock — shares
  20. wind — moving air
  21. stock — a soup base
  22. stock — goods
  23. cell — in biology
  24. cell — a phone

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