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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: cold · board · wound · mine · net · clip · bark · arm

  1. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  4. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  5. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  11. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  12. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  16. My father caught me by the ________________.
  17. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  20. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  21. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  22. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  23. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  24. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.

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

Answer key

  1. net — for catching
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. board — a committee
  4. net — after costs
  5. net — in sport
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. cold — not warm
  8. clip — a video
  9. clip — to cut
  10. mine — an explosive
  11. bark — to shout
  12. bark — a dog's sound
  13. cold — an illness
  14. mine — for digging
  15. arm — a part of something
  16. arm — part of the body
  17. wound — past of 'wind'
  18. clip — for paper
  19. bark — of a tree
  20. board — to get on
  21. board — a flat piece
  22. wound — an injury
  23. wound — an injury
  24. arm — part of the body

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