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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: bark · cold · bear · kid · snap · degree · squash · race

  1. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  2. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  7. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  12. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  13. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  14. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.

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

Answer key

  1. bear — to put up with
  2. bear — the animal
  3. snap — to click
  4. snap — to speak sharply
  5. degree — temperature
  6. snap — to snap out of it
  7. race — the arms race
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. bark — of a tree
  10. cold — an illness
  11. bear — the animal
  12. squash — the vegetable
  13. bark — a dog's sound
  14. bark — to shout
  15. kid — child
  16. race — a contest
  17. cold — not warm
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. squash — the sport
  20. degree — an amount
  21. kid — to tease
  22. race — humankind
  23. degree — from a university
  24. squash — to crush

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