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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 120 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 elephant has a huge ________________.
  2. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  3. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  6. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  7. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  8. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  9. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  10. That must've been a ________________.
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. It's one o'clock ________________.
  13. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  17. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  18. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  19. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  20. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  21. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  22. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  23. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  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. trunk — of an elephant
  2. rush — hurry
  3. scale — size or range
  4. hand — in cards
  5. shower — a meteor shower
  6. file — a tool
  7. scale — in music
  8. shower — to wash
  9. branch — a division
  10. rush — a thrill
  11. file — a document
  12. sharp — exactly
  13. trunk — of a car
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. shower — rain
  16. branch — of a bank
  17. rush — to hurry
  18. branch — of a tree
  19. scale — for weighing
  20. file — a line of people
  21. sharp — with an edge
  22. sharp — clever
  23. hand — help
  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