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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. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  2. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  3. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  4. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  5. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  6. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  7. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  8. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  9. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. How do you ________________ your surname?
  13. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  18. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  19. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  22. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — a straw man
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. trunk — of an elephant
  4. track — a song
  5. track — to keep track
  6. straw — dry grass
  7. trunk — of a tree
  8. bowl — a dish
  9. straw — to clutch at straws
  10. cold — an illness
  11. cold — not warm
  12. spell — letters
  13. bowl — to roll
  14. spell — a short time
  15. trunk — of a car
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. perch — the fish
  19. track — a path
  20. clip — to cut
  21. spell — magic
  22. bowl — a football final
  23. clip — a video
  24. clip — for paper

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