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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: game · snap · hand · fine · march · bark · clip · kid

  1. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  5. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  6. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  7. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  10. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  11. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  12. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. That was a fun ________________.
  20. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  21. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to speak sharply
  2. hand — help
  3. clip — for paper
  4. march — the month
  5. bark — of a tree
  6. fine — all right
  7. fine — a penalty
  8. kid — child
  9. game — a kind of play
  10. bark — to shout
  11. bark — a dog's sound
  12. kid — to tease
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. hand — in cards
  15. clip — a video
  16. game — wild animals
  17. snap — to click
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. game — a match
  20. fine — high quality
  21. snap — to snap out of it
  22. clip — to cut
  23. march — the month
  24. march — music

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