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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. Where did you ________________ them?
  2. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  3. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  7. False peace will not ________________.
  8. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  9. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  13. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  14. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  15. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  16. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  17. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  18. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  19. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  20. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  21. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  22. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mug — to rob
  2. pass — to succeed
  3. bark — of a tree
  4. cold — an illness
  5. clip — to cut
  6. bark — a dog's sound
  7. last — to go on
  8. mug — a face
  9. march — the month
  10. clip — for paper
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. bark — to shout
  13. mug — a cup
  14. last — finally
  15. branch — a division
  16. march — music
  17. branch — of a tree
  18. pass — to spend time
  19. last — final
  20. march — the month
  21. branch — of a bank
  22. pass — a permit
  23. clip — a video
  24. cold — not warm

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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