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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 · current · ground · bark · spring · sharp · kid · race

  1. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  5. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  6. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  7. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  8. There's no middle ________________.
  9. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  10. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  13. It's one o'clock ________________.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  17. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  18. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  19. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  20. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  21. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  22. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  23. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  24. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — with an edge
  2. kid — to tease
  3. spring — of water
  4. current — electric
  5. current — of water
  6. ground — crushed
  7. sharp — clever
  8. ground — a position
  9. bark — a dog's sound
  10. wound — past of 'wind'
  11. spring — a coil
  12. race — the arms race
  13. sharp — exactly
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. kid — child
  16. bark — to shout
  17. race — a contest
  18. wound — an injury
  19. bark — of a tree
  20. ground — the earth
  21. spring — the season
  22. race — humankind
  23. current — happening now
  24. wound — an injury

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