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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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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: last · jam · clip · pop · bark · squash · kid · land

  1. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  4. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  9. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  13. You don't need to ________________ round.
  14. When are we going to ________________?
  15. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  16. False peace will not ________________.
  17. We're almost out of ________________.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  20. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  23. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. clip — for paper
  3. bark — a dog's sound
  4. squash — the sport
  5. land — ground
  6. clip — to cut
  7. kid — to tease
  8. squash — the vegetable
  9. jam — to spread on bread
  10. kid — child
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. jam — a tight spot
  13. pop — to visit
  14. land — to come down
  15. squash — to crush
  16. last — to go on
  17. pop — soda
  18. clip — a video
  19. last — finally
  20. jam — in traffic
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. pop — music
  23. bark — to shout
  24. land — a country

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