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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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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: deal · clip · wound · chest · cabinet · mark · wind · bark

  1. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. What do you think of the new ________________?
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  13. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  14. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  15. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  16. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  17. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  18. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  19. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  20. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  24. She got the top ________________ in the exam.

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

Answer key

  1. mark — to pay attention
  2. chest — of your body
  3. clip — to cut
  4. deal — a big deal
  5. wind — moving air
  6. chest — of your body
  7. cabinet — ministers
  8. clip — for paper
  9. wound — past of 'wind'
  10. clip — a video
  11. wound — an injury
  12. cabinet — ministers
  13. deal — to handle
  14. bark — to shout
  15. deal — an agreement
  16. mark — a trace
  17. bark — of a tree
  18. bark — a dog's sound
  19. chest — a box
  20. cabinet — a cupboard
  21. wind — moving air
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. wound — an injury
  24. mark — a grade

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