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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: wound · bark · trunk · chair · capital · land · content · tear

  1. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  2. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  6. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  7. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  12. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  13. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  14. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  15. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  16. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  17. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  18. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  19. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  20. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. wound — an injury
  3. capital — a city
  4. capital — money
  5. bark — to shout
  6. bark — a dog's sound
  7. tear — to rip
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. bark — of a tree
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. chair — a leader
  12. content — happy
  13. chair — a professorship
  14. trunk — of an elephant
  15. tear — from crying
  16. land — a country
  17. trunk — of a tree
  18. trunk — of a car
  19. content — the amount
  20. tear — from crying
  21. land — ground
  22. land — to come down
  23. chair — to sit on
  24. wound — past of 'wind'

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