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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 124 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've got the luggage in my ________________.
  2. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  4. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  5. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  6. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  9. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  12. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  13. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  16. That was a fun ________________.
  17. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  18. I can't ________________ this cold.
  19. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. Where did you ________________ them?

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

Answer key

  1. trunk — of a car
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. mug — a face
  4. march — the month
  5. kick — a thrill
  6. trunk — of an elephant
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. stand — for spectators
  9. march — the month
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. game — wild animals
  12. kick — with a leg
  13. march — music
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. stand — on your feet
  16. game — a match
  17. mug — a cup
  18. stand — to bear
  19. trunk — of a tree
  20. clip — for paper
  21. clip — a video
  22. kick — in football
  23. clip — to cut
  24. mug — to rob

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