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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: land · hand · scale · cold · vault · bark · capital · rule

  1. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  9. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  12. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  13. When are we going to ________________?
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  20. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  21. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  22. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  24. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. bark — of a tree
  4. capital — a city
  5. cold — an illness
  6. land — a country
  7. bark — to shout
  8. rule — government
  9. vault — in gymnastics
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. rule — a law
  12. rule — to rule out
  13. land — to come down
  14. hand — in cards
  15. bark — a dog's sound
  16. cold — not warm
  17. vault — an arched ceiling
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. hand — help
  20. vault — a safe
  21. scale — size or range
  22. scale — for weighing
  23. capital — money
  24. scale — in music

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