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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: kick · straw · bark · wind · field · face · clip · scale

  1. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  7. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  8. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  9. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  10. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  11. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  12. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  13. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  14. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  21. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. scale — size or range
  2. clip — for paper
  3. clip — to cut
  4. clip — a video
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. kick — in football
  7. wind — moving air
  8. wind — moving air
  9. scale — in music
  10. bark — of a tree
  11. kick — a thrill
  12. face — to confront
  13. face — to point toward
  14. bark — a dog's sound
  15. field — farmland
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. scale — for weighing
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. field — a subject
  20. bark — to shout
  21. face — part of the head
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. kick — with a leg
  24. field — for sport

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