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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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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: capital · row · stem · bark · cold · dip · mate · tube

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. Have you found your soul ________________?
  7. I'll be taking the ________________.
  8. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  9. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  10. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  11. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  12. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  13. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  16. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  17. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  18. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  19. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  20. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  21. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. capital — a city
  3. dip — to dunk
  4. row — a line
  5. capital — money
  6. mate — a partner
  7. tube — the underground
  8. row — a quarrel
  9. dip — a sauce
  10. bark — of a tree
  11. bark — a dog's sound
  12. tube — in a tire
  13. mate — to breed
  14. cold — an illness
  15. stem — a stem cell
  16. stem — of a plant
  17. stem — to come from
  18. dip — to sink
  19. mate — a friend
  20. capital — a big letter
  21. tube — a container
  22. row — to paddle
  23. bark — to shout
  24. cold — the Cold War

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