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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. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  10. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  13. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  16. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  17. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  18. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  22. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — for digging
  2. file — a tool
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. clip — to cut
  5. fall — to drop
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. file — a line of people
  8. clip — a video
  9. mine — an explosive
  10. trunk — of a tree
  11. clip — for paper
  12. rock — music
  13. fall — the season
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. rock — a stone
  16. fall — to drop
  17. shower — to wash
  18. trunk — of an elephant
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. bat — the animal
  21. rock — to move gently
  22. trunk — of a car
  23. shower — rain
  24. file — a document

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