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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: straw · fork · tear · clip · chest · mouse · trunk · march

  1. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  5. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  6. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  11. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  16. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  23. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  24. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. mouse — the animal
  3. chest — of your body
  4. chest — a box
  5. trunk — of a tree
  6. trunk — of an elephant
  7. clip — a video
  8. fork — a garden tool
  9. tear — from crying
  10. trunk — of a car
  11. mouse — the animal
  12. clip — to cut
  13. clip — for paper
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. tear — from crying
  16. fork — to eat with
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. march — music
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. march — the month
  21. tear — to rip
  22. march — the month
  23. mouse — for a computer
  24. fork — in a road

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