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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. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  3. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  4. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  7. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  10. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  11. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  12. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  13. False peace will not ________________.
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  17. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  18. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  22. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  23. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. file — a line of people
  3. drill — a practice
  4. wound — an injury
  5. court — for sport
  6. file — a document
  7. straw — a straw man
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. last — finally
  10. court — of law
  11. trunk — of a car
  12. trunk — of an elephant
  13. last — to go on
  14. mine — for digging
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. drill — the tool
  17. court — of a king
  18. trunk — of a tree
  19. file — a tool
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. wound — an injury
  22. drill — army training
  23. straw — to clutch at straws
  24. wound — past of 'wind'

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