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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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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: chair · cold · straw · bark · land · foot · pound · degree

  1. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  2. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  3. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  9. When are we going to ________________?
  10. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  11. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  12. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  13. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  24. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pound — to hit hard
  2. bark — a dog's sound
  3. foot — a measure
  4. land — a country
  5. pound — a weight
  6. land — ground
  7. cold — not warm
  8. foot — part of the body
  9. land — to come down
  10. bark — of a tree
  11. straw — dry grass
  12. chair — to sit on
  13. foot — the bottom
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. pound — for dogs
  17. cold — an illness
  18. bark — to shout
  19. degree — an amount
  20. chair — a leader
  21. degree — from a university
  22. degree — temperature
  23. chair — a professorship
  24. straw — to clutch at straws

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