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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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 · chair · wave · shower · perch · pitcher · capital · file

  1. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  2. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  3. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  4. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  5. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  6. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  7. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  8. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  9. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  10. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  11. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  12. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  15. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  16. He is an ace ________________.
  17. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  21. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  22. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — money
  2. chair — to sit on
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. wave — with your hand
  5. bark — to shout
  6. bark — a dog's sound
  7. wave — of the sea
  8. shower — a meteor shower
  9. chair — a leader
  10. wave — a sudden rise
  11. file — a tool
  12. bark — of a tree
  13. shower — to wash
  14. perch — the fish
  15. perch — for a bird
  16. pitcher — in baseball
  17. pitcher — a jug
  18. capital — a city
  19. file — a document
  20. capital — a big letter
  21. perch — for a bird
  22. chair — a professorship
  23. file — a line of people
  24. shower — rain

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