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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. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  2. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  3. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  4. Don't do anything ________________.
  5. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  14. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  15. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  18. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  19. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. The ________________ took off on time.
  22. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.

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

Answer key

  1. trunk — of a car
  2. rash — on the skin
  3. mine — for digging
  4. rash — hasty
  5. trunk — of a tree
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. mine — an explosive
  8. bat — the animal
  9. land — ground
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. straw — a straw man
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. plane — a tool
  14. perch — for a bird
  15. perch — for a bird
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. perch — the fish
  18. mine — belonging to me
  19. trunk — of an elephant
  20. land — to come down
  21. plane — an aircraft
  22. plane — in geometry
  23. land — a country
  24. rash — a series

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