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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 water is too ________________.
  2. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  3. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  4. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  5. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  6. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  11. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  12. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  13. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  14. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  15. The ________________ went through the wall.
  16. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  17. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  18. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  19. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  24. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. hide — animal skin
  3. snap — to snap out of it
  4. chair — a leader
  5. chair — to sit on
  6. bark — a dog's sound
  7. clip — for paper
  8. snap — to click
  9. cold — an illness
  10. chair — a professorship
  11. nail — for a hammer
  12. bark — to shout
  13. hide — to keep secret
  14. bark — of a tree
  15. nail — for a hammer
  16. rock — music
  17. rock — to move gently
  18. snap — to speak sharply
  19. hide — to keep secret
  20. clip — to cut
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. clip — a video
  23. rock — a stone
  24. nail — on a finger

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