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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 116 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. That was a fun ________________.
  2. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  5. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  6. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  7. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  8. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  9. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  10. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  11. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  17. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  21. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  22. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  23. That must've been a ________________.
  24. You shouldn't ________________ things.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a match
  2. trunk — of an elephant
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. rush — hurry
  5. band — a ring
  6. object — an aim
  7. kick — a thrill
  8. object — to protest
  9. kick — with a leg
  10. kick — in football
  11. trunk — of a tree
  12. file — a tool
  13. trunk — of a car
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. file — a document
  16. file — a line of people
  17. object — a thing
  18. hand — in cards
  19. game — wild animals
  20. band — a music group
  21. hand — help
  22. band — a rubber band
  23. rush — a thrill
  24. rush — to hurry

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