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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. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  2. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  3. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  4. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  5. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  6. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  12. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  13. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  16. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  19. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  22. We're on a ________________ here.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. The elephant has a huge ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — to shout
  2. roll — a cake
  3. march — the month
  4. bark — a dog's sound
  5. march — music
  6. wake — a trail
  7. clip — to cut
  8. field — farmland
  9. trunk — of a car
  10. field — a subject
  11. trunk — of a tree
  12. roll — a list
  13. march — the month
  14. field — for sport
  15. wake — to stop sleeping
  16. shower — a meteor shower
  17. clip — a video
  18. wake — before a funeral
  19. bark — of a tree
  20. clip — for paper
  21. shower — to wash
  22. roll — on a roll
  23. shower — rain
  24. trunk — of an elephant

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