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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. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  2. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  5. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  6. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  12. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  23. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  24. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.

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

Answer key

  1. calf — of the leg
  2. mine — belonging to me
  3. clip — for paper
  4. calf — a young animal
  5. calf — a young animal
  6. bark — of a tree
  7. bark — to shout
  8. hand — in cards
  9. clip — a video
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. row — a line
  12. fork — to eat with
  13. degree — temperature
  14. hand — help
  15. bark — a dog's sound
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. clip — to cut
  18. row — to paddle
  19. mine — an explosive
  20. degree — an amount
  21. degree — from a university
  22. fork — a garden tool
  23. mine — for digging
  24. fork — in a road

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