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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. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  2. It's one o'clock ________________.
  3. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  6. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. Did you ________________ the button?
  17. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  18. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  21. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  22. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  23. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  24. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for dancing
  2. sharp — exactly
  3. trunk — of a car
  4. clip — to cut
  5. sharp — clever
  6. sharp — with an edge
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. hand — in cards
  9. shower — rain
  10. trunk — of a tree
  11. clip — for paper
  12. trunk — of an elephant
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. shower — to wash
  15. hand — help
  16. press — to push
  17. scale — for weighing
  18. club — a group
  19. clip — a video
  20. scale — size or range
  21. press — a publisher
  22. scale — in music
  23. club — for golf
  24. press — newspapers

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