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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: spring · drill · straw · bark · clip · wake · court · date

  1. Have you settled on a ________________?
  2. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  3. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  7. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  8. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  15. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  16. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  21. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  22. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  23. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  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. date — on the calendar
  2. bark — of a tree
  3. drill — a practice
  4. spring — the season
  5. court — for sport
  6. wake — before a funeral
  7. date — the fruit
  8. court — of law
  9. spring — of water
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. clip — to cut
  12. wake — a trail
  13. clip — a video
  14. wake — to stop sleeping
  15. bark — to shout
  16. straw — dry grass
  17. spring — a coil
  18. bark — a dog's sound
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. drill — army training
  21. court — of a king
  22. drill — the tool
  23. date — on the calendar
  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