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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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. She's very handy with a ________________.
  5. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  6. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  7. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  8. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  16. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  17. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  18. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. He works in a ________________ mill.
  23. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  24. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. cold — an illness
  3. clip — for paper
  4. saw — the tool
  5. pit — a hole
  6. root — the cause
  7. bass — the instrument
  8. root — of a word
  9. field — farmland
  10. pit — a fruit stone
  11. clip — a video
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. pit — in a race
  14. cold — not warm
  15. bass — low music
  16. bark — of a tree
  17. root — of a plant
  18. saw — past of 'see'
  19. field — a subject
  20. bass — the fish
  21. field — for sport
  22. saw — the tool
  23. bark — to shout
  24. bark — a dog's sound

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