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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. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  4. False peace will not ________________.
  5. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  6. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  7. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  8. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  11. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  12. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  13. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  14. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  15. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  16. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  19. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  20. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  23. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  24. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.

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

Answer key

  1. wake — to stop sleeping
  2. clip — to cut
  3. kick — in football
  4. last — to go on
  5. last — final
  6. shower — rain
  7. trunk — of a tree
  8. cap — a lid
  9. clip — for paper
  10. trunk — of an elephant
  11. kick — with a leg
  12. wake — before a funeral
  13. cap — of ice
  14. kick — a thrill
  15. rule — to rule out
  16. shower — a meteor shower
  17. last — finally
  18. shower — to wash
  19. wake — a trail
  20. trunk — of a car
  21. clip — a video
  22. cap — a hat
  23. rule — government
  24. rule — a law

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