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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: hide · wound · bark · deal · wind · race · cold · chest

  1. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  2. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  3. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  4. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  5. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  6. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  7. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  10. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  11. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  12. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  13. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  14. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  15. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  16. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  19. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  24. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. bark — a dog's sound
  3. wind — to turn a key
  4. deal — a big deal
  5. race — the arms race
  6. bark — of a tree
  7. race — humankind
  8. chest — of your body
  9. wound — past of 'wind'
  10. race — a contest
  11. deal — an agreement
  12. deal — to handle
  13. wound — an injury
  14. bark — to shout
  15. hide — to keep secret
  16. wind — moving air
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. hide — to keep secret
  19. chest — of your body
  20. cold — an illness
  21. chest — a box
  22. cold — not warm
  23. wind — moving air
  24. hide — animal skin

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