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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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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 · band · stem · mine · cold · bark · straw · rule

  1. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  2. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  3. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  4. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  5. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  12. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  13. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  14. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  17. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  18. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  19. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  20. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  23. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  24. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — a dog's sound
  2. band — a music group
  3. bark — of a tree
  4. rule — a law
  5. rule — government
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. trunk — of a tree
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. straw — dry grass
  10. cold — not warm
  11. stem — a stem cell
  12. rule — to rule out
  13. straw — to clutch at straws
  14. stem — of a plant
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. mine — an explosive
  17. trunk — of a car
  18. trunk — of an elephant
  19. bark — to shout
  20. mine — for digging
  21. cold — an illness
  22. stem — to come from
  23. band — a rubber band
  24. band — a ring

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