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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. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  6. The King held a masked ________________.
  7. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  8. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  9. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  10. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  11. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  14. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  19. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  20. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  23. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  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. chair — to sit on
  2. clip — to cut
  3. trunk — of an elephant
  4. clip — a video
  5. chair — a professorship
  6. ball — a dance
  7. lash — an eyelash
  8. chair — a leader
  9. lash — a whip stroke
  10. ball — a great time
  11. trunk — of a car
  12. field — farmland
  13. cell — a phone
  14. trunk — of a tree
  15. field — for sport
  16. lash — to lash out
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. ball — a round shape
  19. root — of a plant
  20. root — of a word
  21. field — a subject
  22. cell — in biology
  23. root — the cause
  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