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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.

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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: kid · band · clip · straw · trunk · fine · chest · field

  1. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  9. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  10. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  11. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  18. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  23. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. chest — of your body
  3. chest — a box
  4. trunk — of a car
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. clip — a video
  7. clip — for paper
  8. fine — all right
  9. band — a ring
  10. straw — a straw man
  11. straw — dry grass
  12. field — for sport
  13. field — a subject
  14. kid — child
  15. fine — a penalty
  16. chest — of your body
  17. trunk — of a tree
  18. fine — high quality
  19. kid — to tease
  20. band — a music group
  21. clip — to cut
  22. band — a rubber band
  23. trunk — of an elephant
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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