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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. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  2. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  3. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  4. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  5. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  10. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  11. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  14. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  15. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  18. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. I'll be taking the ________________.
  23. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  24. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. trunk — of a tree
  2. trunk — of an elephant
  3. wound — an injury
  4. trunk — of a car
  5. hand — part of the body
  6. chest — of your body
  7. wound — an injury
  8. chest — of your body
  9. march — the month
  10. march — music
  11. race — the arms race
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. tube — a container
  14. chest — a box
  15. race — humankind
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. hand — help
  18. wound — past of 'wind'
  19. hand — in cards
  20. race — a contest
  21. march — the month
  22. tube — the underground
  23. tube — in a tire
  24. straw — dry grass

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