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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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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 · firm · cold · lash · spring · row · capital · snap

  1. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  9. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  10. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  13. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  14. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  17. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  18. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  21. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  22. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. snap — to click
  3. snap — to snap out of it
  4. capital — money
  5. row — to paddle
  6. cold — not warm
  7. capital — a city
  8. firm — decided
  9. lash — an eyelash
  10. lash — to lash out
  11. cold — an illness
  12. firm — steady
  13. firm — a company
  14. row — a line
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. bark — a dog's sound
  17. bark — of a tree
  18. lash — a whip stroke
  19. spring — a coil
  20. bark — to shout
  21. spring — the season
  22. row — a quarrel
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. snap — to speak sharply

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