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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 116 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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. The ________________ took off on time.
  3. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  4. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  12. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  13. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  14. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  15. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  16. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  17. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  18. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  19. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  22. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  23. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. plane — an aircraft
  3. face — to confront
  4. staff — employees
  5. cold — an illness
  6. game — a match
  7. bark — to shout
  8. clip — to cut
  9. plane — in geometry
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. hide — animal skin
  12. bark — a dog's sound
  13. plane — a tool
  14. game — wild animals
  15. game — a kind of play
  16. face — part of the head
  17. hide — to keep secret
  18. bark — of a tree
  19. staff — a stick
  20. cold — not warm
  21. hide — to keep secret
  22. face — to point toward
  23. staff — employees
  24. clip — a video

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