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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. How do you ________________ your surname?
  4. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  5. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  11. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  12. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  13. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  16. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  17. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  22. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  23. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  24. He was locked up in a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — of a tree
  2. file — a tool
  3. spell — letters
  4. branch — a division
  5. branch — of a bank
  6. clip — to cut
  7. bark — to shout
  8. scale — in music
  9. clip — for paper
  10. bark — a dog's sound
  11. trunk — of a car
  12. trunk — of a tree
  13. trunk — of an elephant
  14. file — a line of people
  15. scale — size or range
  16. spell — magic
  17. cell — in biology
  18. clip — a video
  19. scale — for weighing
  20. file — a document
  21. branch — of a tree
  22. spell — a short time
  23. cell — a phone
  24. cell — in a prison

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