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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: key · cell · bark · band · clip · calf · kid · bat

  1. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  2. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  4. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. He was locked up in a ________________.
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. This piece is in a major ________________.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  13. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  14. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  15. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  16. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  19. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  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. calf — a young animal
  2. band — a ring
  3. bark — a dog's sound
  4. calf — of the leg
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. cell — a phone
  7. cell — in a prison
  8. kid — child
  9. clip — to cut
  10. key — in music
  11. bat — the animal
  12. key — the most important part
  13. key — for a lock
  14. cell — in biology
  15. bark — to shout
  16. band — a rubber band
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. kid — to tease
  19. calf — a young animal
  20. clip — a video
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. band — a music group
  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