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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 120 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: bay · clip · bark · spring · cell · cold · squash · lash

  1. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  5. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  8. My mare is ________________ in color.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. He was locked up in a ________________.
  11. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  12. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  13. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  14. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  15. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  16. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  23. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. squash — the sport
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. squash — the vegetable
  5. bark — to shout
  6. spring — the season
  7. lash — to lash out
  8. bay — a horse colour
  9. cold — not warm
  10. cell — in a prison
  11. bark — of a tree
  12. bay — to keep at bay
  13. cell — in biology
  14. squash — to crush
  15. cell — a phone
  16. bark — a dog's sound
  17. clip — a video
  18. lash — an eyelash
  19. spring — of water
  20. clip — to cut
  21. cold — an illness
  22. lash — a whip stroke
  23. bay — a part of the sea
  24. spring — a coil

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