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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: bark · clip · cold · pop · straw · bass · snap · cabinet

  1. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  3. You don't need to ________________ round.
  4. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  5. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  6. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  7. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  8. We're almost out of ________________.
  9. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  20. What do you think of the new ________________?
  21. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. bark — of a tree
  3. pop — to visit
  4. snap — to speak sharply
  5. cabinet — ministers
  6. bass — low music
  7. cabinet — a cupboard
  8. pop — soda
  9. bass — the fish
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. cold — not warm
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. cold — an illness
  14. pop — music
  15. clip — to cut
  16. bark — to shout
  17. clip — a video
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. bark — a dog's sound
  20. cabinet — ministers
  21. snap — to snap out of it
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. bass — the instrument
  24. clip — for paper

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