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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: kid · rest · clip · straw · mine · pitcher · racket · bark

  1. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  2. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  9. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  10. He is an ace ________________.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  13. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  14. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  18. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  19. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  22. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  23. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  24. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rest — a break
  2. bark — of a tree
  3. clip — to cut
  4. mine — belonging to me
  5. clip — for paper
  6. racket — for tennis
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. rest — what's left
  9. mine — an explosive
  10. pitcher — in baseball
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. rest — what's left
  13. pitcher — a jug
  14. bark — a dog's sound
  15. clip — a video
  16. kid — child
  17. racket — a loud noise
  18. bark — to shout
  19. pitcher — a jug
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. racket — for tennis
  22. mine — for digging
  23. kid — to tease
  24. straw — dry grass

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