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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. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  2. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  6. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. He was locked up in a ________________.
  9. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  17. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  18. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  19. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  20. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  23. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — a dog's sound
  2. cell — in biology
  3. land — to come down
  4. clip — to cut
  5. stem — of a plant
  6. stem — to come from
  7. game — a match
  8. cell — in a prison
  9. cell — a phone
  10. clip — for paper
  11. file — a line of people
  12. land — ground
  13. file — a tool
  14. file — a document
  15. clip — a video
  16. face — to confront
  17. face — part of the head
  18. bark — to shout
  19. stem — a stem cell
  20. face — to point toward
  21. game — wild animals
  22. game — a kind of play
  23. bark — of a tree
  24. land — a country

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