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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. That was a fun ________________.
  2. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  3. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  4. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  11. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  12. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  13. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  14. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  15. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. False peace will not ________________.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. I'll be taking the ________________.
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  22. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  23. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  24. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a match
  2. row — a line
  3. last — final
  4. face — part of the head
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. trunk — of a tree
  7. clip — for paper
  8. trunk — of a car
  9. clip — to cut
  10. trunk — of an elephant
  11. wind — moving air
  12. row — to paddle
  13. face — to confront
  14. last — finally
  15. wind — moving air
  16. clip — a video
  17. last — to go on
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. tube — the underground
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. tube — in a tire
  22. game — wild animals
  23. face — to point toward
  24. tube — a container

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