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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: straw · degree · lash · clip · trunk · patient · march · game

  1. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  7. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  8. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  9. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  10. That was a fun ________________.
  11. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  12. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  13. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  14. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  18. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  21. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. degree — an amount
  3. trunk — of a car
  4. clip — a video
  5. clip — for paper
  6. straw — a straw man
  7. trunk — of an elephant
  8. patient — a sick person
  9. march — music
  10. game — a match
  11. lash — to lash out
  12. march — the month
  13. patient — a sick person
  14. patient — calm and waiting
  15. degree — temperature
  16. clip — to cut
  17. game — a kind of play
  18. trunk — of a tree
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. straw — dry grass
  21. lash — a whip stroke
  22. degree — from a university
  23. lash — an eyelash
  24. game — wild animals

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