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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: wind · mouse · cold · straw · cell · trunk

  1. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  2. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  5. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  6. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  7. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  8. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  9. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  13. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  14. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  15. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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. cold — an illness
  4. straw — dry grass
  5. mouse — the animal
  6. trunk — of a tree
  7. straw — to clutch at straws
  8. trunk — of a car
  9. cell — a phone
  10. wind — moving air
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. mouse — for a computer
  13. straw — a straw man
  14. wind — to turn a key
  15. mouse — the animal
  16. cold — not warm
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. cell — in biology

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