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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 116 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. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  3. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  4. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  5. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  6. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  11. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  12. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  13. When are we going to ________________?
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  16. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  17. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  18. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  22. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. stick — to attach or keep to
  3. march — music
  4. race — a contest
  5. bark — a dog's sound
  6. pound — a weight
  7. land — a country
  8. stick — a piece of wood
  9. clip — for paper
  10. spring — a coil
  11. bark — to shout
  12. race — humankind
  13. land — to come down
  14. spring — the season
  15. stick — a piece of wood
  16. march — the month
  17. bark — of a tree
  18. pound — for dogs
  19. spring — of water
  20. clip — to cut
  21. race — the arms race
  22. pound — to hit hard
  23. march — the month
  24. clip — a video

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