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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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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: race · shower · clip · kick · pound · field · file · trunk

  1. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  2. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  3. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  4. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  5. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  6. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  9. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  15. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  22. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  23. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. trunk — of a car
  2. kick — in football
  3. shower — rain
  4. shower — a meteor shower
  5. trunk — of a tree
  6. kick — with a leg
  7. clip — a video
  8. kick — a thrill
  9. pound — a weight
  10. field — a subject
  11. field — farmland
  12. race — humankind
  13. clip — for paper
  14. trunk — of an elephant
  15. pound — for dogs
  16. file — a tool
  17. field — for sport
  18. file — a line of people
  19. race — a contest
  20. file — a document
  21. pound — to hit hard
  22. race — the arms race
  23. shower — to wash
  24. clip — to cut

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