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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. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  2. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  3. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  4. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  5. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  10. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  13. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  14. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  17. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  18. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  19. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  20. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  21. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  24. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.

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

Answer key

  1. branch — of a bank
  2. straw — dry grass
  3. trunk — of an elephant
  4. mine — belonging to me
  5. band — a ring
  6. clip — to cut
  7. game — a match
  8. clip — for paper
  9. straw — to clutch at straws
  10. march — the month
  11. clip — a video
  12. branch — a division
  13. trunk — of a car
  14. march — the month
  15. mine — for digging
  16. game — a kind of play
  17. straw — a straw man
  18. game — wild animals
  19. branch — of a tree
  20. trunk — of a tree
  21. band — a music group
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. march — music
  24. band — a rubber band

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