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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. The light ________________ burned out.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  4. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  10. I've got to change the light ________________.
  11. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  12. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  15. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  16. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  19. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  20. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. He was locked up in a ________________.
  24. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.

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

Answer key

  1. bulb — for light
  2. clip — to cut
  3. trunk — of a car
  4. club — for golf
  5. cold — an illness
  6. cold — not warm
  7. race — a contest
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. race — the arms race
  10. bulb — for light
  11. trunk — of an elephant
  12. club — for dancing
  13. wind — moving air
  14. wind — to turn a key
  15. club — a group
  16. cell — a phone
  17. wind — moving air
  18. race — humankind
  19. bulb — of a plant
  20. cell — in biology
  21. clip — for paper
  22. clip — a video
  23. cell — in a prison
  24. trunk — of a tree

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