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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. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  2. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. We're almost out of ________________.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  10. He was locked up in a ________________.
  11. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  12. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  13. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. You don't need to ________________ round.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  19. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  20. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  21. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  24. He keeps ________________ of his days.

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

Answer key

  1. trunk — of a car
  2. game — wild animals
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. cell — a phone
  5. clip — to cut
  6. pop — soda
  7. bat — the animal
  8. clip — for paper
  9. trunk — of a tree
  10. cell — in a prison
  11. cell — in biology
  12. pop — music
  13. track — a path
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. pop — to visit
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. game — a match
  18. track — a song
  19. drill — army training
  20. trunk — of an elephant
  21. drill — the tool
  22. clip — a video
  23. drill — a practice
  24. track — to keep track

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