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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: bark · sharp · tube · present · cold · capital · bat · mug

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. Where did you ________________ them?
  3. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  4. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  7. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  10. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  11. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  12. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  13. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  14. I'll be taking the ________________.
  15. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. It's one o'clock ________________.
  19. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  20. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  21. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  22. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. mug — to rob
  3. present — a gift
  4. bark — to shout
  5. bat — the animal
  6. capital — a city
  7. present — the time now
  8. capital — money
  9. sharp — clever
  10. bark — of a tree
  11. sharp — with an edge
  12. tube — in a tire
  13. bark — a dog's sound
  14. tube — the underground
  15. tube — a container
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. sharp — exactly
  19. mug — a face
  20. present — there
  21. mug — a cup
  22. capital — a big letter
  23. cold — not warm
  24. bat — for baseball

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