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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: clip · straw · bark · bowl · rule · cold · chair · face

  1. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  4. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  5. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  6. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  12. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  15. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  16. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  17. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  20. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  21. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  22. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  23. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  24. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. bark — a dog's sound
  4. bark — to shout
  5. rule — a law
  6. chair — a leader
  7. cold — not warm
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. clip — a video
  10. cold — an illness
  11. bowl — a football final
  12. face — part of the head
  13. clip — to cut
  14. bowl — to roll
  15. face — to confront
  16. chair — a professorship
  17. face — to point toward
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. bowl — a dish
  20. rule — to rule out
  21. chair — to sit on
  22. rule — government
  23. bark — of a tree
  24. straw — a straw man

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