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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: row · clip · shower · cold · cue · suit · sharp · bark

  1. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  2. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  3. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  4. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  5. It's one o'clock ________________.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. When will it ________________ you to start?
  12. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  13. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  14. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  15. The cuffs of his ________________ jacket are badly frayed.
  16. Positive actions can inspire others to follow ________________.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. He's taking a ________________ right now.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — clever
  2. sharp — with an edge
  3. bark — a dog's sound
  4. cue — a hint
  5. sharp — exactly
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. bark — of a tree
  8. shower — rain
  9. row — to paddle
  10. clip — to cut
  11. suit — to fit
  12. shower — a meteor shower
  13. row — a line
  14. cue — for pool
  15. suit — clothes
  16. suit — in cards
  17. clip — a video
  18. cold — not warm
  19. clip — for paper
  20. cue — a signal
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. bark — to shout
  23. cold — an illness
  24. shower — to wash

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