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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: kid · hand · bark · pound · fan · key · tube · cold

  1. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  2. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  3. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  4. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  5. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  6. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  7. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  8. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  9. I'll be taking the ________________.
  10. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. This piece is in a major ________________.
  13. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  14. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  20. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. tube — in a tire
  3. pound — for dogs
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. key — the most important part
  6. bark — of a tree
  7. tube — a container
  8. bark — to shout
  9. tube — the underground
  10. pound — a weight
  11. cold — an illness
  12. key — in music
  13. bark — a dog's sound
  14. pound — to hit hard
  15. hand — help
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. fan — to cool the air
  18. kid — child
  19. key — for a lock
  20. kid — to tease
  21. hand — in cards
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  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