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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: swing · bat · march · file · trunk · cold · tear · leaves

  1. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  8. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  9. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  10. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  11. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  15. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  16. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  19. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  20. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. David sat on the ________________.
  23. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  24. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. trunk — of an elephant
  3. cold — not warm
  4. cold — an illness
  5. file — a document
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. march — the month
  8. leaves — lets stay
  9. trunk — of a tree
  10. tear — from crying
  11. tear — from crying
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. file — a line of people
  14. leaves — to go away
  15. trunk — of a car
  16. leaves — of a tree
  17. tear — to rip
  18. file — a tool
  19. swing — music
  20. swing — in golf
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. swing — to play on
  23. march — music
  24. march — the month

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