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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 · degree · row · snap · tube · bark · wind · hand

  1. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  2. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  3. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  4. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  7. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. I'll be taking the ________________.
  12. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  13. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  16. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  22. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  23. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  24. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — in cards
  2. row — a line
  3. row — a quarrel
  4. bark — a dog's sound
  5. degree — temperature
  6. snap — to speak sharply
  7. snap — to click
  8. wind — moving air
  9. hand — part of the body
  10. wind — moving air
  11. tube — the underground
  12. tube — in a tire
  13. capital — a big letter
  14. hand — help
  15. bark — to shout
  16. snap — to snap out of it
  17. degree — an amount
  18. row — to paddle
  19. degree — from a university
  20. capital — money
  21. wind — to turn a key
  22. bark — of a tree
  23. capital — a city
  24. tube — a container

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