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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. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  3. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  7. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  10. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  15. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  19. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  20. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  21. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  22. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  23. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  24. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. bark — to shout
  3. fine — all right
  4. clip — for paper
  5. clip — to cut
  6. file — a line of people
  7. kick — a thrill
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. trunk — of a tree
  10. kick — with a leg
  11. clip — a video
  12. trunk — of a car
  13. file — a document
  14. bark — of a tree
  15. fine — high quality
  16. file — a tool
  17. kid — child
  18. bark — a dog's sound
  19. trunk — of an elephant
  20. mine — for digging
  21. kick — in football
  22. mine — belonging to me
  23. mine — an explosive
  24. fine — a penalty

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