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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: scale · fall · march · bark · kid · clip · mine · firm

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  3. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  9. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  10. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  11. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  14. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  17. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  20. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. fall — the season
  3. fall — to drop
  4. march — music
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. firm — a company
  7. bark — to shout
  8. mine — for digging
  9. march — the month
  10. firm — steady
  11. mine — belonging to me
  12. kid — child
  13. bark — a dog's sound
  14. scale — size or range
  15. clip — a video
  16. fall — to drop
  17. firm — decided
  18. clip — to cut
  19. march — the month
  20. scale — in music
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. clip — for paper
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. scale — for weighing

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