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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. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. There's no middle ________________.
  4. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  5. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  8. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  11. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  12. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  13. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  14. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  15. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  16. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  17. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  18. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  22. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  23. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. trunk — of an elephant
  2. field — farmland
  3. ground — a position
  4. wake — a trail
  5. scale — in music
  6. field — for sport
  7. row — a line
  8. ground — crushed
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. wake — before a funeral
  11. wake — to stop sleeping
  12. branch — of a bank
  13. branch — a division
  14. field — a subject
  15. ground — the earth
  16. scale — size or range
  17. scale — for weighing
  18. trunk — of a car
  19. shower — rain
  20. row — to paddle
  21. trunk — of a tree
  22. branch — of a tree
  23. shower — to wash
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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