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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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  4. The ________________ market has crashed.
  5. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  6. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  9. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  12. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  13. He was locked up in a ________________.
  14. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  18. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  19. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  20. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  23. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. clip — for paper
  3. file — a line of people
  4. stock — shares
  5. bark — a dog's sound
  6. cell — in biology
  7. kid — to tease
  8. stock — a soup base
  9. fork — in a road
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. cell — a phone
  12. bark — to shout
  13. cell — in a prison
  14. patient — calm and waiting
  15. file — a document
  16. kid — child
  17. bark — of a tree
  18. fork — to eat with
  19. patient — a sick person
  20. stock — goods
  21. clip — a video
  22. fork — a garden tool
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. file — a tool

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