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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 116 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: field · row · bark · drill · land · clip · bowl · bat

  1. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  4. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  16. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  17. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  23. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  24. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — of a tree
  2. land — to come down
  3. bowl — a football final
  4. bark — a dog's sound
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. row — a line
  7. land — a country
  8. drill — the tool
  9. clip — a video
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. clip — for paper
  12. field — for sport
  13. bat — the animal
  14. land — ground
  15. bark — to shout
  16. row — to paddle
  17. bowl — to roll
  18. field — a subject
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. field — farmland
  21. clip — to cut
  22. drill — army training
  23. drill — a practice
  24. bowl — a dish

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