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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 116 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: bark · spell · cold · fork · present · row · ground · perch

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  5. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  6. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  7. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  8. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  9. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  10. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  11. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  12. How do you ________________ your surname?
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. There's no middle ________________.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  17. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  18. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. fork — a garden tool
  3. cold — an illness
  4. present — a gift
  5. perch — the fish
  6. bark — to shout
  7. present — there
  8. perch — for a bird
  9. perch — for a bird
  10. spell — magic
  11. ground — crushed
  12. spell — letters
  13. row — to paddle
  14. ground — a position
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. fork — to eat with
  17. fork — in a road
  18. bark — a dog's sound
  19. spell — a short time
  20. row — a line
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. present — the time now
  24. ground — the earth

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