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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: club · lie · cell · trunk · root · march · cold · wound

  1. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  2. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  3. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  6. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  7. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  8. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  9. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  10. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  11. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. He was locked up in a ________________.
  14. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  17. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  18. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  19. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  20. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  21. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  22. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  23. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  24. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.

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

Answer key

  1. lie — to recline
  2. club — a group
  3. march — the month
  4. cold — not warm
  5. trunk — of a tree
  6. wound — an injury
  7. cell — a phone
  8. trunk — of a car
  9. march — music
  10. cell — in biology
  11. lie — an untruth
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. cell — in a prison
  14. march — the month
  15. cold — an illness
  16. root — the cause
  17. club — for dancing
  18. wound — past of 'wind'
  19. root — of a plant
  20. trunk — of an elephant
  21. lie — an untruth
  22. wound — an injury
  23. club — for golf
  24. root — of a word

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