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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 · mine · trunk · file · pass · cell · track · stick

  1. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  2. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  3. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  4. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  7. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  8. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  9. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  10. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  11. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  12. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  16. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  17. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  18. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  21. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  22. He was locked up in a ________________.
  23. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  24. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stick — a piece of wood
  2. cell — a phone
  3. trunk — of an elephant
  4. file — a line of people
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. mine — for digging
  7. straw — to clutch at straws
  8. pass — a permit
  9. trunk — of a car
  10. track — a song
  11. cell — in biology
  12. track — to keep track
  13. file — a tool
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. trunk — of a tree
  16. stick — to attach or keep to
  17. mine — belonging to me
  18. pass — to succeed
  19. file — a document
  20. pass — to spend time
  21. track — a path
  22. cell — in a prison
  23. mine — an explosive
  24. stick — a piece of wood

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