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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: straw · drill · hand · toast · cold · mark · bark · clip

  1. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  2. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  3. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  4. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  10. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  11. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  19. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  20. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  21. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — army training
  2. toast — a drink to someone
  3. bark — of a tree
  4. toast — bread
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. hand — help
  8. clip — to cut
  9. mark — a trace
  10. mark — to pay attention
  11. mark — a grade
  12. clip — for paper
  13. drill — a practice
  14. hand — in cards
  15. clip — a video
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. cold — not warm
  18. toast — the most admired
  19. drill — the tool
  20. bark — a dog's sound
  21. bark — to shout
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. hand — part of the body
  24. cold — an illness

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