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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: bark · row · fall · mine · key · snap · bat · clip

  1. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  4. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  5. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  6. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  14. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  15. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  16. This piece is in a major ________________.
  17. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  18. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  21. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  22. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  23. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  24. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — to shout
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. snap — to speak sharply
  4. fall — the season
  5. row — a line
  6. mine — for digging
  7. clip — for paper
  8. clip — a video
  9. bark — a dog's sound
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. clip — to cut
  12. bat — the animal
  13. row — a quarrel
  14. snap — to snap out of it
  15. snap — to click
  16. key — in music
  17. fall — to drop
  18. key — the most important part
  19. row — to paddle
  20. key — for a lock
  21. mine — belonging to me
  22. fall — to drop
  23. bark — of a tree
  24. mine — an explosive

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