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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 need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  4. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  14. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  15. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  22. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  23. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — the tool
  2. clip — a video
  3. straw — a straw man
  4. drill — army training
  5. clip — for paper
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. shower — to wash
  8. shower — rain
  9. cold — not warm
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. kid — to tease
  12. cold — an illness
  13. trunk — of an elephant
  14. drill — a practice
  15. fan — a supporter
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. trunk — of a tree
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. kid — child
  20. clip — to cut
  21. fan — to cool the air
  22. fan — a supporter
  23. trunk — of a car
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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