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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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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: file · kid · fork · cold · bark · pass · clip · bear

  1. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  2. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  3. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  4. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  11. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  24. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.

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

Answer key

  1. pass — to succeed
  2. bark — of a tree
  3. fork — to eat with
  4. bear — the animal
  5. cold — not warm
  6. cold — an illness
  7. file — a line of people
  8. pass — to spend time
  9. clip — to cut
  10. bear — to put up with
  11. file — a tool
  12. kid — child
  13. bark — a dog's sound
  14. kid — to tease
  15. clip — for paper
  16. clip — a video
  17. pass — a permit
  18. file — a document
  19. bark — to shout
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. bear — the animal
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. fork — a garden tool
  24. fork — in a road

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