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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: straw · bark · arm · tube · fine · toast · wind · march

  1. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  2. I'll be taking the ________________.
  3. My father caught me by the ________________.
  4. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  7. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  8. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  9. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  10. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  13. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  14. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  15. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  16. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  17. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  18. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  23. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  24. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. toast — a drink to someone
  2. tube — the underground
  3. arm — part of the body
  4. toast — the most admired
  5. wind — moving air
  6. bark — to shout
  7. fine — high quality
  8. fine — all right
  9. bark — a dog's sound
  10. arm — a part of something
  11. march — the month
  12. tube — in a tire
  13. straw — a straw man
  14. wind — to turn a key
  15. march — music
  16. toast — bread
  17. arm — part of the body
  18. wind — moving air
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. fine — a penalty
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. tube — a container
  23. march — the month
  24. straw — dry grass

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