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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 cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  2. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. The light ________________ burned out.
  5. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  6. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  7. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. False peace will not ________________.
  12. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  16. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  19. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  20. I've got to change the light ________________.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  23. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  24. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. trunk — of a car
  3. clip — a video
  4. bulb — for light
  5. last — finally
  6. last — final
  7. trunk — of a tree
  8. file — a document
  9. band — a rubber band
  10. tear — from crying
  11. last — to go on
  12. scale — for weighing
  13. clip — to cut
  14. clip — for paper
  15. scale — size or range
  16. scale — in music
  17. file — a tool
  18. trunk — of an elephant
  19. band — a music group
  20. bulb — for light
  21. file — a line of people
  22. bulb — of a plant
  23. band — a ring
  24. tear — to rip

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