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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: kid · file · squash · vault · straw · bark · cold · clip

  1. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  3. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  7. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  18. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  19. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  24. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. file — a line of people
  3. straw — a straw man
  4. clip — a video
  5. clip — for paper
  6. vault — an arched ceiling
  7. squash — the sport
  8. kid — to tease
  9. squash — to crush
  10. cold — not warm
  11. file — a tool
  12. cold — an illness
  13. bark — of a tree
  14. clip — to cut
  15. bark — a dog's sound
  16. file — a document
  17. squash — the vegetable
  18. bark — to shout
  19. vault — a safe
  20. kid — child
  21. straw — to clutch at straws
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. straw — dry grass
  24. vault — in gymnastics

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