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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. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  3. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  4. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  5. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  6. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  7. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  8. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  20. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  21. It's one o'clock ________________.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  24. Boris sat near the fire ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. trunk — of an elephant
  2. wind — moving air
  3. bat — the animal
  4. band — a ring
  5. band — a rubber band
  6. wound — an injury
  7. band — a music group
  8. trunk — of a car
  9. wound — an injury
  10. trunk — of a tree
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. cold — not warm
  13. sharp — with an edge
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. pit — in a race
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. wind — moving air
  18. cold — an illness
  19. wound — past of 'wind'
  20. sharp — clever
  21. sharp — exactly
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. pit — a fruit stone
  24. pit — a hole

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