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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 124 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. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  3. How do you ________________ your surname?
  4. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  5. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  6. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  11. There's no middle ________________.
  12. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  13. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  14. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  15. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  16. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  17. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  20. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  21. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. bark — to shout
  3. spell — letters
  4. ground — the earth
  5. band — a music group
  6. straw — dry grass
  7. file — a line of people
  8. band — a rubber band
  9. file — a tool
  10. spell — a short time
  11. ground — a position
  12. bark — a dog's sound
  13. ground — crushed
  14. pit — a fruit stone
  15. pit — a hole
  16. pit — in a race
  17. straw — to clutch at straws
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. bark — of a tree
  20. spell — magic
  21. row — a quarrel
  22. row — to paddle
  23. file — a document
  24. band — a ring

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