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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. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  2. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  3. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  6. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  9. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  12. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  13. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  14. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  15. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  16. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  17. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  18. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  23. That must've been a ________________.
  24. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.

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

Answer key

  1. rush — to hurry
  2. snap — to speak sharply
  3. bark — of a tree
  4. clip — for paper
  5. snap — to snap out of it
  6. wound — an injury
  7. clip — to cut
  8. wound — past of 'wind'
  9. bark — to shout
  10. shower — rain
  11. rush — hurry
  12. tear — from crying
  13. wound — an injury
  14. tear — to rip
  15. shower — to wash
  16. snap — to click
  17. fall — the season
  18. fall — to drop
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. tear — from crying
  21. clip — a video
  22. bark — a dog's sound
  23. rush — a thrill
  24. fall — to drop

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