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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 · mine · bark · field · bay · wound · snap · cell

  1. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  2. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  3. My mare is ________________ in color.
  4. He was locked up in a ________________.
  5. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  9. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  10. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  17. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  18. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  19. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — an explosive
  2. snap — to speak sharply
  3. bay — a horse colour
  4. cell — in a prison
  5. cell — in biology
  6. cell — a phone
  7. clip — for paper
  8. bark — of a tree
  9. bay — to keep at bay
  10. bay — a part of the sea
  11. wound — an injury
  12. mine — for digging
  13. field — farmland
  14. snap — to snap out of it
  15. clip — a video
  16. snap — to click
  17. bark — to shout
  18. wound — past of 'wind'
  19. bark — a dog's sound
  20. field — a subject
  21. wound — an injury
  22. clip — to cut
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. field — for sport

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