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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 King held a masked ________________.
  2. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  6. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  7. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  8. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  9. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  10. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  17. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  20. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  21. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  22. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. The kitten curled into a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a dance
  2. mine — for digging
  3. shower — to wash
  4. bat — the animal
  5. bark — of a tree
  6. shower — rain
  7. trunk — of a car
  8. shower — a meteor shower
  9. ball — a great time
  10. mine — an explosive
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. clip — a video
  13. wake — to stop sleeping
  14. clip — to cut
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. bark — to shout
  17. bark — a dog's sound
  18. clip — for paper
  19. trunk — of a tree
  20. trunk — of an elephant
  21. wake — a trail
  22. wake — before a funeral
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. ball — a round shape

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