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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: chest · bark · saw · racket · snap · plane · cold · capital

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. He works in a ________________ mill.
  4. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  5. She's very handy with a ________________.
  6. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  7. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  8. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  9. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  10. The ________________ took off on time.
  11. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  14. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  20. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  21. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  22. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  23. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  24. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. saw — the tool
  4. racket — a loud noise
  5. saw — the tool
  6. racket — for tennis
  7. plane — in geometry
  8. saw — past of 'see'
  9. snap — to click
  10. plane — an aircraft
  11. chest — of your body
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. bark — to shout
  14. bark — a dog's sound
  15. cold — not warm
  16. chest — a box
  17. capital — a city
  18. capital — money
  19. chest — of your body
  20. plane — a tool
  21. snap — to snap out of it
  22. bark — of a tree
  23. snap — to speak sharply
  24. racket — for tennis

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