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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  3. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  12. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. I can't ________________ this cold.
  20. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  21. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  22. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. trunk — of a car
  3. trunk — of a tree
  4. file — a document
  5. chest — of your body
  6. march — music
  7. stand — on your feet
  8. row — a line
  9. field — farmland
  10. file — a line of people
  11. row — to paddle
  12. march — the month
  13. file — a tool
  14. chest — of your body
  15. clip — a video
  16. field — for sport
  17. march — the month
  18. clip — to cut
  19. stand — to bear
  20. row — a quarrel
  21. stand — for spectators
  22. trunk — of an elephant
  23. field — a subject
  24. chest — a box

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