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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. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  2. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  3. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  4. When are we going to ________________?
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. That must've been a ________________.
  9. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  10. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  11. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  12. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  23. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  24. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.

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

Answer key

  1. rush — hurry
  2. wound — an injury
  3. bark — a dog's sound
  4. land — to come down
  5. clip — for paper
  6. clip — to cut
  7. wound — an injury
  8. rush — a thrill
  9. rush — to hurry
  10. straw — dry grass
  11. straw — a straw man
  12. squash — the sport
  13. spring — a coil
  14. spring — the season
  15. squash — to crush
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. land — ground
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. clip — a video
  20. bark — to shout
  21. land — a country
  22. bark — of a tree
  23. spring — of water
  24. squash — the vegetable

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