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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: spring · sharp · face · cold · tear · bark · cap · content

  1. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  2. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  3. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. It's one o'clock ________________.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  10. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  11. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  12. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  15. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  20. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  23. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  24. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — of a tree
  2. bark — to shout
  3. sharp — clever
  4. content — happy
  5. sharp — exactly
  6. cold — not warm
  7. cold — an illness
  8. spring — a coil
  9. tear — from crying
  10. face — to point toward
  11. cap — a hat
  12. cap — a lid
  13. spring — the season
  14. face — part of the head
  15. tear — from crying
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. content — the amount
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. cap — of ice
  20. tear — to rip
  21. spring — of water
  22. sharp — with an edge
  23. face — to confront
  24. bark — a dog's sound

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