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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 116 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: bark · land · hand · cold · wind · bear · fall · net

  1. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  2. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  7. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  12. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  18. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  19. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  20. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  23. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — to drop
  2. bark — to shout
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. hand — in cards
  6. bear — to put up with
  7. bark — a dog's sound
  8. hand — help
  9. fall — to drop
  10. cold — an illness
  11. bear — the animal
  12. net — for catching
  13. wind — moving air
  14. land — ground
  15. fall — the season
  16. land — to come down
  17. wind — to turn a key
  18. bear — the animal
  19. net — in sport
  20. wind — moving air
  21. land — a country
  22. net — after costs
  23. bark — of a tree
  24. cold — not warm

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