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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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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: stick · cold · field · wound · game · bark · clip · snap

  1. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  7. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  8. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  14. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  15. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  21. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  22. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  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. stick — to attach or keep to
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. wound — past of 'wind'
  4. game — a match
  5. clip — for paper
  6. wound — an injury
  7. bark — of a tree
  8. bark — to shout
  9. field — farmland
  10. snap — to speak sharply
  11. field — a subject
  12. clip — to cut
  13. snap — to click
  14. stick — a piece of wood
  15. stick — a piece of wood
  16. game — wild animals
  17. wound — an injury
  18. clip — a video
  19. cold — an illness
  20. snap — to snap out of it
  21. game — a kind of play
  22. bark — a dog's sound
  23. cold — not warm
  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