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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: plane · lean · trunk · hide · bark · file · bat · cold

  1. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  2. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  9. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  15. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  16. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  19. The ________________ took off on time.
  20. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  21. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  24. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.

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

Answer key

  1. lean — thin
  2. bat — in an idiom
  3. file — a tool
  4. plane — a tool
  5. cold — an illness
  6. hide — to keep secret
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. hide — to keep secret
  9. trunk — of a car
  10. bat — the animal
  11. file — a line of people
  12. hide — animal skin
  13. cold — not warm
  14. lean — to rest against
  15. bark — to shout
  16. bark — a dog's sound
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. trunk — of an elephant
  19. plane — an aircraft
  20. plane — in geometry
  21. trunk — of a tree
  22. file — a document
  23. bark — of a tree
  24. lean — to bend

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