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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. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  3. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  4. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  5. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  6. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  7. I'll be taking the ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  10. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. My father caught me by the ________________.
  13. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  16. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  22. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  23. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  24. He is as ________________ as a wolf.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — a dog's sound
  2. arm — part of the body
  3. straw — to clutch at straws
  4. perch — for a bird
  5. arm — a part of something
  6. tube — a container
  7. tube — the underground
  8. cold — an illness
  9. perch — the fish
  10. perch — for a bird
  11. cold — not warm
  12. arm — part of the body
  13. straw — a straw man
  14. clip — a video
  15. lean — to bend
  16. lean — to rest against
  17. clip — for paper
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. clip — to cut
  21. bark — to shout
  22. bark — of a tree
  23. tube — in a tire
  24. lean — thin

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