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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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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: hand · spring · chip · bark · snap · pitcher · wake · capital

  1. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  2. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  10. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  11. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  12. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  13. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  17. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  20. He is an ace ________________.
  21. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  22. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  23. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — a dog's sound
  2. bark — of a tree
  3. spring — of water
  4. snap — to click
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. spring — the season
  7. pitcher — a jug
  8. hand — help
  9. snap — to snap out of it
  10. bark — to shout
  11. chip — to eat
  12. snap — to speak sharply
  13. pitcher — a jug
  14. capital — money
  15. spring — a coil
  16. wake — to stop sleeping
  17. chip — in a computer
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. wake — before a funeral
  20. pitcher — in baseball
  21. chip — for betting
  22. wake — a trail
  23. capital — a city
  24. hand — in cards

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