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

Word bank: trunk · march · clip · drill · tear · race · mate · fall

  1. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  2. Have you found your soul ________________?
  3. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  4. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  5. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  6. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  7. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  8. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  9. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  12. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  13. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  21. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  22. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  24. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — to rip
  2. mate — a partner
  3. race — a contest
  4. trunk — of a tree
  5. trunk — of an elephant
  6. drill — army training
  7. march — music
  8. march — the month
  9. trunk — of a car
  10. tear — from crying
  11. fall — the season
  12. mate — to breed
  13. mate — a friend
  14. clip — for paper
  15. drill — a practice
  16. clip — to cut
  17. tear — from crying
  18. fall — to drop
  19. clip — a video
  20. drill — the tool
  21. race — humankind
  22. fall — to drop
  23. march — the month
  24. race — the arms race

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