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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: lean · field · race · hand · ground · cap · bark · wake

  1. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  2. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  3. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  4. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  7. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  8. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  9. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  10. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  11. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  12. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  13. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. There's no middle ________________.
  18. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  19. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  22. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  23. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  24. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.

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

Answer key

  1. lean — thin
  2. race — humankind
  3. hand — in cards
  4. cap — of ice
  5. field — a subject
  6. bark — to shout
  7. wake — before a funeral
  8. cap — a hat
  9. race — the arms race
  10. ground — crushed
  11. lean — to rest against
  12. bark — a dog's sound
  13. race — a contest
  14. field — for sport
  15. wake — to stop sleeping
  16. field — farmland
  17. ground — a position
  18. bark — of a tree
  19. wake — a trail
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. hand — help
  22. ground — the earth
  23. cap — a lid
  24. lean — to bend

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