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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. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  6. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  10. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  11. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  12. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  15. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  16. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  17. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  18. Where did you ________________ them?
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — a straw man
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. mug — a cup
  4. clip — a video
  5. lash — to lash out
  6. mug — a face
  7. bat — the animal
  8. field — for sport
  9. trunk — of a car
  10. lash — a whip stroke
  11. straw — dry grass
  12. scale — for weighing
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. lash — an eyelash
  15. scale — in music
  16. trunk — of an elephant
  17. scale — size or range
  18. mug — to rob
  19. field — farmland
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. clip — to cut
  22. field — a subject
  23. clip — for paper
  24. trunk — of a tree

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