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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'd like to play a game of ________________.
  2. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  3. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  6. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  7. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  8. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  9. How do you ________________ your surname?
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  15. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  16. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  21. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — the sport
  2. club — for dancing
  3. trunk — of a car
  4. bat — the animal
  5. trunk — of a tree
  6. club — for golf
  7. squash — to crush
  8. board — a flat piece
  9. spell — letters
  10. clip — to cut
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. board — a committee
  13. cold — an illness
  14. board — to get on
  15. trunk — of an elephant
  16. spell — magic
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. clip — for paper
  19. clip — a video
  20. club — a group
  21. spell — a short time
  22. cold — not warm
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. squash — the vegetable

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