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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 116 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. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  2. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  3. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  4. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. It's one o'clock ________________.
  8. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  11. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  12. There's no middle ________________.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  17. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  18. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  22. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — crushed
  2. sharp — clever
  3. wound — past of 'wind'
  4. sharp — with an edge
  5. clip — a video
  6. wind — moving air
  7. sharp — exactly
  8. wound — an injury
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. bark — a dog's sound
  11. wound — an injury
  12. ground — a position
  13. shower — to wash
  14. mine — an explosive
  15. shower — rain
  16. bark — to shout
  17. ground — the earth
  18. bark — of a tree
  19. clip — for paper
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. mine — for digging
  22. wind — moving air
  23. clip — to cut
  24. mine — belonging to me

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