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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.

Words on the sheet
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: drill · clip · bark · fall · rash · last · degree · face

  1. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  2. Don't do anything ________________.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  7. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  8. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  11. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  12. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  13. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  14. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  15. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  16. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  17. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  21. False peace will not ________________.
  22. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  23. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  24. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — to shout
  2. rash — hasty
  3. degree — from a university
  4. fall — to drop
  5. clip — to cut
  6. degree — an amount
  7. last — final
  8. bark — of a tree
  9. clip — a video
  10. drill — army training
  11. bark — a dog's sound
  12. rash — a series
  13. face — to confront
  14. face — to point toward
  15. drill — the tool
  16. last — finally
  17. drill — a practice
  18. clip — for paper
  19. degree — temperature
  20. fall — to drop
  21. last — to go on
  22. face — part of the head
  23. rash — on the skin
  24. fall — the season

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