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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 116 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. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  4. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  5. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  6. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  12. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  13. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  14. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  15. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  16. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. It's one o'clock ________________.
  19. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.

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

Answer key

  1. mark — to pay attention
  2. clip — a video
  3. trunk — of an elephant
  4. mark — a trace
  5. trunk — of a car
  6. cap — of ice
  7. clip — for paper
  8. cold — not warm
  9. cap — a lid
  10. clip — to cut
  11. cap — a hat
  12. bass — the fish
  13. sharp — clever
  14. sharp — with an edge
  15. trunk — of a tree
  16. mark — a grade
  17. shower — rain
  18. sharp — exactly
  19. bass — the instrument
  20. cold — an illness
  21. shower — to wash
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. bass — low music

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