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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. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  2. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  3. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  4. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  10. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  11. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  12. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  13. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  14. When are we going to ________________?
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  18. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — a video
  2. trunk — of an elephant
  3. mouse — the animal
  4. trunk — of a car
  5. bat — the animal
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. mouse — the animal
  8. chest — of your body
  9. march — the month
  10. march — the month
  11. trunk — of a tree
  12. fork — to eat with
  13. fork — in a road
  14. land — to come down
  15. chest — of your body
  16. clip — to cut
  17. fork — a garden tool
  18. mouse — for a computer
  19. land — a country
  20. march — music
  21. clip — for paper
  22. chest — a box
  23. land — ground
  24. bat — in an idiom

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