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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 sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  2. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  3. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  15. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  20. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  23. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — to shout
  2. bark — a dog's sound
  3. craft — a handicraft
  4. bat — the animal
  5. chest — of your body
  6. tear — from crying
  7. clip — to cut
  8. chest — a box
  9. clip — for paper
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. clip — a video
  12. craft — boats
  13. kid — child
  14. bark — of a tree
  15. kid — to tease
  16. march — the month
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. tear — from crying
  19. march — the month
  20. chest — of your body
  21. tear — to rip
  22. craft — a skill
  23. march — music
  24. bat — in an idiom

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