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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 band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  3. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  14. He was locked up in a ________________.
  15. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  16. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  17. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  18. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  21. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  22. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  23. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. trunk — of a car
  2. march — music
  3. shower — rain
  4. kid — child
  5. march — the month
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. cell — a phone
  9. shower — to wash
  10. march — the month
  11. clip — a video
  12. clip — for paper
  13. cell — in biology
  14. cell — in a prison
  15. tear — from crying
  16. leaves — to go away
  17. kid — to tease
  18. leaves — of a tree
  19. tear — from crying
  20. trunk — of an elephant
  21. trunk — of a tree
  22. leaves — lets stay
  23. tear — to rip
  24. clip — to cut

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