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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. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  3. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  6. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  11. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  12. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  13. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  14. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. That was a fun ________________.
  24. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — a dog's sound
  2. bark — of a tree
  3. leaves — lets stay
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. bass — the instrument
  6. mark — to pay attention
  7. bark — to shout
  8. leaves — of a tree
  9. clip — for paper
  10. scale — in music
  11. bass — the fish
  12. bass — low music
  13. scale — for weighing
  14. leaves — to go away
  15. game — wild animals
  16. clip — to cut
  17. mark — a grade
  18. cold — an illness
  19. scale — size or range
  20. clip — a video
  21. cold — not warm
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. game — a match
  24. mark — a trace

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