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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: tear · plane · toast · craft · bark · wound · hand · cold

  1. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  2. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  6. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  7. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  8. The ________________ took off on time.
  9. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  10. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  11. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  12. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  19. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  23. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  24. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. bark — a dog's sound
  3. cold — an illness
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. craft — boats
  6. toast — the most admired
  7. bark — of a tree
  8. plane — an aircraft
  9. plane — in geometry
  10. toast — bread
  11. hand — help
  12. plane — a tool
  13. tear — from crying
  14. wound — an injury
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. cold — not warm
  17. hand — in cards
  18. bark — to shout
  19. craft — a skill
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. tear — to rip
  22. craft — a handicraft
  23. toast — a drink to someone
  24. wound — an injury

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