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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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468
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: bore · rash · swing · clip · mine · cell · bark · bat

  1. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  2. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  3. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  4. Don't do anything ________________.
  5. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  16. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. David sat on the ________________.
  19. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  20. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  24. He was locked up in a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — a dog's sound
  2. swing — music
  3. rash — a series
  4. rash — hasty
  5. swing — in golf
  6. cell — a phone
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. bark — to shout
  9. bat — the animal
  10. bore — gave birth
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. mine — belonging to me
  13. clip — to cut
  14. mine — for digging
  15. rash — on the skin
  16. bore — to drill
  17. clip — for paper
  18. swing — to play on
  19. cell — in biology
  20. bore — to tire
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. clip — a video
  23. bark — of a tree
  24. cell — in a prison

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