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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. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  2. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  3. How do you ________________ your surname?
  4. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  7. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  8. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  17. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. What do you think of the new ________________?
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  24. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.

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

Answer key

  1. cabinet — ministers
  2. bark — to shout
  3. spell — letters
  4. bark — a dog's sound
  5. clip — for paper
  6. bark — of a tree
  7. cabinet — a cupboard
  8. rule — government
  9. field — for sport
  10. clip — a video
  11. clip — to cut
  12. rule — to rule out
  13. chest — a box
  14. rule — a law
  15. chest — of your body
  16. capital — money
  17. spell — magic
  18. chest — of your body
  19. cabinet — ministers
  20. field — farmland
  21. capital — a city
  22. field — a subject
  23. spell — a short time
  24. capital — a big letter

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