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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 elephant has a huge ________________.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  5. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  6. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  7. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  8. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  9. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  10. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  11. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  12. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  13. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  14. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  15. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  16. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  17. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. trunk — of an elephant
  2. clip — to cut
  3. shower — to wash
  4. snap — to speak sharply
  5. wind — to turn a key
  6. prune — to trim
  7. net — after costs
  8. snap — to snap out of it
  9. prune — to trim
  10. row — to paddle
  11. net — in sport
  12. snap — to click
  13. row — a quarrel
  14. trunk — of a tree
  15. row — a line
  16. prune — the fruit
  17. net — for catching
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. wind — moving air
  20. clip — a video
  21. wind — moving air
  22. clip — for paper
  23. trunk — of a car
  24. shower — rain

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