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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: bark · prune · march · spring · clip · club · pound · fork

  1. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  2. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  3. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  4. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  5. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  9. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  10. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  11. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  12. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  13. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  14. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  19. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  20. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. bark — a dog's sound
  3. prune — to trim
  4. club — for golf
  5. fork — to eat with
  6. spring — the season
  7. spring — a coil
  8. club — a group
  9. club — for dancing
  10. pound — a weight
  11. prune — the fruit
  12. march — music
  13. march — the month
  14. fork — in a road
  15. clip — for paper
  16. clip — to cut
  17. spring — of water
  18. pound — to hit hard
  19. bark — to shout
  20. fork — a garden tool
  21. march — the month
  22. pound — for dogs
  23. clip — a video
  24. bark — of a tree

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