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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: land · clip · bark · saw · shower · chair · sharp · hand

  1. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  3. She's very handy with a ________________.
  4. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  5. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  6. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  9. He works in a ________________ mill.
  10. It's one o'clock ________________.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  13. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  14. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  17. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  18. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. chair — to sit on
  3. saw — the tool
  4. bark — a dog's sound
  5. sharp — with an edge
  6. hand — help
  7. clip — for paper
  8. bark — of a tree
  9. saw — the tool
  10. sharp — exactly
  11. hand — in cards
  12. shower — rain
  13. chair — a professorship
  14. chair — a leader
  15. land — a country
  16. land — ground
  17. bark — to shout
  18. saw — past of 'see'
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. sharp — clever
  21. land — to come down
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. shower — to wash
  24. clip — a video

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