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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. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  9. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  10. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  11. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  14. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  17. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  20. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  24. I'd like to play a game of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. clip — to cut
  3. wound — an injury
  4. chest — of your body
  5. fan — a supporter
  6. clip — for paper
  7. field — a subject
  8. squash — to crush
  9. fan — to cool the air
  10. object — to protest
  11. object — a thing
  12. field — for sport
  13. chest — of your body
  14. object — an aim
  15. clip — a video
  16. bark — a dog's sound
  17. wound — past of 'wind'
  18. field — farmland
  19. bark — to shout
  20. chest — a box
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. wound — an injury
  23. squash — the vegetable
  24. squash — the sport

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