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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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  6. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  11. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  12. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  13. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  16. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  23. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  24. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.

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

Answer key

  1. trunk — of an elephant
  2. snap — to click
  3. spring — of water
  4. row — a line
  5. pit — a fruit stone
  6. snap — to speak sharply
  7. field — for sport
  8. snap — to snap out of it
  9. field — farmland
  10. pit — a hole
  11. dip — to dunk
  12. pit — in a race
  13. row — a quarrel
  14. spring — the season
  15. trunk — of a tree
  16. trunk — of a car
  17. field — a subject
  18. wax — for sculpting
  19. spring — a coil
  20. dip — to sink
  21. row — to paddle
  22. wax — in the ear
  23. wax — to grow
  24. dip — a sauce

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