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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. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  2. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  7. Did you ________________ the meat?
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  16. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  17. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  18. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  23. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  24. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. perch — for a bird
  2. bark — a dog's sound
  3. clip — for paper
  4. bark — to shout
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. chip — to eat
  7. season — to add flavour
  8. game — a match
  9. clip — to cut
  10. game — wild animals
  11. tear — from crying
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. season — of the year
  14. bat — the animal
  15. tear — from crying
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. game — a kind of play
  18. tear — to rip
  19. clip — a video
  20. chip — in a computer
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. chip — for betting
  23. perch — the fish
  24. season — in sport

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