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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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. Don't do anything ________________.
  3. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  4. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. We're almost out of ________________.
  8. You don't need to ________________ round.
  9. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  10. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  11. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  12. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  13. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  14. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  15. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  18. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  21. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  22. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. rash — hasty
  3. fan — to cool the air
  4. rash — on the skin
  5. clip — a video
  6. clip — for paper
  7. pop — soda
  8. pop — to visit
  9. bark — of a tree
  10. trunk — of a tree
  11. branch — of a bank
  12. trunk — of a car
  13. pop — music
  14. branch — of a tree
  15. rash — a series
  16. shower — rain
  17. trunk — of an elephant
  18. branch — a division
  19. clip — to cut
  20. fan — a supporter
  21. fan — a supporter
  22. bark — to shout
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. bark — a dog's sound

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