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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 120 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. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  2. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  4. He is an ace ________________.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  8. David sat on the ________________.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  14. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  15. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  20. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — a video
  2. march — the month
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. pitcher — in baseball
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. clip — to cut
  7. bark — a dog's sound
  8. swing — to play on
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. bat — the animal
  12. clip — for paper
  13. swing — music
  14. swing — in golf
  15. kid — to tease
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. pitcher — a jug
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. march — music
  20. bark — to shout
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. kid — child
  23. march — the month
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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