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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: race · kid · mine · bark · file · wind · pitcher · bore

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  4. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  5. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  6. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. He is an ace ________________.
  10. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  11. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  12. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  13. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  14. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  18. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  19. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. mine — for digging
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. race — a contest
  5. wind — to turn a key
  6. bark — to shout
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. pitcher — in baseball
  10. bore — to tire
  11. bore — to drill
  12. bark — of a tree
  13. bark — a dog's sound
  14. pitcher — a jug
  15. file — a line of people
  16. file — a tool
  17. wind — moving air
  18. race — the arms race
  19. race — humankind
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. bore — gave birth
  22. kid — child
  23. wind — moving air
  24. file — a document

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