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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. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  2. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  3. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  7. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  10. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  11. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  15. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  18. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  19. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  20. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  21. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a professorship
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. calf — of the leg
  4. bat — the animal
  5. clip — a video
  6. fan — a supporter
  7. trunk — of a car
  8. hand — help
  9. hand — part of the body
  10. fan — to cool the air
  11. chair — a leader
  12. clip — for paper
  13. hand — in cards
  14. dip — to dunk
  15. trunk — of an elephant
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. dip — a sauce
  18. calf — a young animal
  19. chair — to sit on
  20. calf — a young animal
  21. dip — to sink
  22. clip — to cut
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. trunk — of a tree

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