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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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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: march · rock · trunk · straw · shower · plane · game · clip

  1. The ________________ took off on time.
  2. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  5. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  6. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  9. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  10. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  11. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  12. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  18. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  21. That was a fun ________________.
  22. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  23. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  24. We were using a ________________ as a seat.

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

Answer key

  1. plane — an aircraft
  2. rock — to move gently
  3. clip — to cut
  4. march — the month
  5. march — music
  6. plane — a tool
  7. clip — for paper
  8. rock — music
  9. game — wild animals
  10. trunk — of a car
  11. game — a kind of play
  12. plane — in geometry
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. clip — a video
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. trunk — of a tree
  18. shower — to wash
  19. shower — rain
  20. trunk — of an elephant
  21. game — a match
  22. march — the month
  23. straw — a straw man
  24. rock — a stone

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