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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. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  2. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  3. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  4. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  9. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. Don't do anything ________________.
  12. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  13. The King held a masked ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  20. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  21. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  22. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  23. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. bark — a dog's sound
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. bark — to shout
  4. dip — to dunk
  5. capital — money
  6. ball — a great time
  7. cold — an illness
  8. perch — for a bird
  9. dip — to sink
  10. clip — for paper
  11. rash — hasty
  12. ball — a round shape
  13. ball — a dance
  14. cold — not warm
  15. perch — the fish
  16. clip — to cut
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. dip — a sauce
  20. rash — on the skin
  21. capital — a city
  22. rash — a series
  23. bark — of a tree
  24. clip — a video

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