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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. He was locked up in a ________________.
  2. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  3. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  4. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  5. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  8. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  22. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cell — in a prison
  2. cell — a phone
  3. present — there
  4. cell — in biology
  5. present — a gift
  6. clip — for paper
  7. file — a document
  8. bark — to shout
  9. court — of a king
  10. spring — of water
  11. court — of law
  12. spring — the season
  13. spring — a coil
  14. straw — to clutch at straws
  15. clip — to cut
  16. straw — dry grass
  17. clip — a video
  18. court — for sport
  19. file — a tool
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. bark — a dog's sound
  22. present — the time now
  23. file — a line of people
  24. bark — of a tree

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