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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. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  4. There's no middle ________________.
  5. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  6. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  7. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  8. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  9. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  10. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  11. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  12. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  13. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  17. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  18. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  24. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.

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

Answer key

  1. stem — to come from
  2. clip — for paper
  3. bark — a dog's sound
  4. ground — a position
  5. kick — a thrill
  6. bark — of a tree
  7. face — part of the head
  8. face — to confront
  9. kick — in football
  10. row — a quarrel
  11. bark — to shout
  12. ground — the earth
  13. kick — with a leg
  14. kid — child
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. ground — crushed
  17. face — to point toward
  18. stem — a stem cell
  19. clip — a video
  20. clip — to cut
  21. stem — of a plant
  22. row — to paddle
  23. kid — to tease
  24. row — a line

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