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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. Don't do anything ________________.
  2. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  6. Have you settled on a ________________?
  7. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  10. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  11. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  12. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  13. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  14. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  15. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  22. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  23. The ________________ took off on time.
  24. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rash — hasty
  2. chest — a box
  3. tear — from crying
  4. hand — in cards
  5. chest — of your body
  6. date — on the calendar
  7. bark — a dog's sound
  8. clip — a video
  9. bark — to shout
  10. rash — a series
  11. plane — in geometry
  12. bark — of a tree
  13. plane — a tool
  14. chest — of your body
  15. date — on the calendar
  16. clip — for paper
  17. rash — on the skin
  18. tear — from crying
  19. tear — to rip
  20. clip — to cut
  21. hand — help
  22. date — the fruit
  23. plane — an aircraft
  24. hand — part of the body

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