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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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Word bank
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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: ruler · kid · bark · hand · spell · straw · row · bat

  1. How do you ________________ your surname?
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  4. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  5. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  11. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  12. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  13. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  22. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  23. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  24. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — letters
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. bark — a dog's sound
  4. bark — to shout
  5. spell — magic
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. ruler — for measuring
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. bark — of a tree
  11. straw — a straw man
  12. ruler — a monarch
  13. kid — to tease
  14. hand — help
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. kid — child
  17. spell — a short time
  18. hand — in cards
  19. row — to paddle
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. straw — to clutch at straws
  22. ruler — for measuring
  23. row — a line
  24. bat — the animal

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