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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  3. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  4. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  5. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  6. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  7. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  8. How do you ________________ your surname?
  9. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  12. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  16. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  17. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  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. kid — to tease
  2. spell — magic
  3. snap — to snap out of it
  4. snap — to click
  5. bark — to shout
  6. pound — a weight
  7. bark — a dog's sound
  8. spell — letters
  9. snap — to speak sharply
  10. kid — child
  11. fall — to drop
  12. bark — of a tree
  13. clip — for paper
  14. hand — help
  15. hand — in cards
  16. pound — for dogs
  17. fall — the season
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. spell — a short time
  20. clip — to cut
  21. pound — to hit hard
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. fall — to drop
  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