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

  1. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  6. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. David sat on the ________________.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. It's one o'clock ________________.
  18. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  19. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  20. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  23. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  24. Would you like some apricot ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. bark — of a tree
  2. clip — a video
  3. sharp — with an edge
  4. row — a line
  5. swing — music
  6. jam — a tight spot
  7. row — to paddle
  8. spring — a coil
  9. sharp — clever
  10. spring — the season
  11. capital — a big letter
  12. clip — to cut
  13. capital — a city
  14. capital — money
  15. swing — to play on
  16. clip — for paper
  17. sharp — exactly
  18. jam — in traffic
  19. swing — in golf
  20. bark — to shout
  21. spring — of water
  22. bark — a dog's sound
  23. row — a quarrel
  24. jam — to spread on bread

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