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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: trunk · bark · saw · kick · cold · net · present · mate

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  3. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  4. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  5. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  6. Have you found your soul ________________?
  7. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  10. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  11. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  12. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  13. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  14. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  15. She's very handy with a ________________.
  16. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  17. He works in a ________________ mill.
  18. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  19. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  20. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  21. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  22. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. mate — to breed
  3. present — the time now
  4. trunk — of an elephant
  5. net — in sport
  6. mate — a partner
  7. present — a gift
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. net — after costs
  10. mate — a friend
  11. kick — a thrill
  12. bark — to shout
  13. saw — past of 'see'
  14. trunk — of a tree
  15. saw — the tool
  16. present — there
  17. saw — the tool
  18. net — for catching
  19. bark — a dog's sound
  20. kick — with a leg
  21. trunk — of a car
  22. bark — of a tree
  23. cold — an illness
  24. kick — in football

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