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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: mine · cold · bound · land · march · bark · last · track

  1. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  2. That was ________________ to happen.
  3. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  4. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  5. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  6. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  7. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  10. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  11. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. False peace will not ________________.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  16. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  17. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  18. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  21. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. When are we going to ________________?
  24. He keeps ________________ of his days.

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

Answer key

  1. bound — tied together
  2. bound — certain
  3. bark — to shout
  4. march — the month
  5. land — a country
  6. mine — an explosive
  7. last — final
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. track — a song
  10. march — the month
  11. last — finally
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. last — to go on
  14. land — ground
  15. march — music
  16. bark — of a tree
  17. bound — obliged
  18. bark — a dog's sound
  19. cold — not warm
  20. mine — for digging
  21. track — a path
  22. cold — an illness
  23. land — to come down
  24. track — to keep track

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