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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. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  2. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. She's very handy with a ________________.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  11. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  12. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  13. He works in a ________________ mill.
  14. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  18. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  19. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  20. It's one o'clock ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. That was a fun ________________.
  23. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  24. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.

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

Answer key

  1. trunk — of a car
  2. trunk — of an elephant
  3. game — wild animals
  4. fall — to drop
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. clip — to cut
  7. saw — the tool
  8. clip — a video
  9. cold — an illness
  10. trunk — of a tree
  11. cue — a signal
  12. sharp — clever
  13. saw — the tool
  14. cue — a hint
  15. clip — for paper
  16. cold — not warm
  17. fall — the season
  18. sharp — with an edge
  19. fall — to drop
  20. sharp — exactly
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. game — a match
  23. cue — for pool
  24. saw — past of 'see'

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