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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. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  4. When are we going to ________________?
  5. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. Have you met the new head ________________?
  9. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  10. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  17. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  18. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  19. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  20. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  21. He is an ace ________________.
  22. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  23. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  24. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — a dog's sound
  2. clip — to cut
  3. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  4. land — to come down
  5. race — the arms race
  6. tear — from crying
  7. kid — to tease
  8. coach — a trainer
  9. land — a country
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. clip — for paper
  12. coach — a trainer
  13. clip — a video
  14. bark — of a tree
  15. kid — child
  16. race — humankind
  17. race — a contest
  18. coach — pulled by horses
  19. pitcher — a jug
  20. bark — to shout
  21. pitcher — in baseball
  22. tear — from crying
  23. tear — to rip
  24. land — ground

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