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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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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: trunk · wind · last · chest · fork · squash · clip · spring

  1. False peace will not ________________.
  2. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  3. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  8. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  12. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  13. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  14. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  22. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  23. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  24. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. last — to go on
  2. fork — in a road
  3. fork — a garden tool
  4. clip — a video
  5. chest — of your body
  6. spring — a coil
  7. trunk — of an elephant
  8. squash — to crush
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. wind — moving air
  11. fork — to eat with
  12. chest — of your body
  13. squash — the sport
  14. trunk — of a car
  15. chest — a box
  16. squash — the vegetable
  17. clip — for paper
  18. spring — of water
  19. spring — the season
  20. clip — to cut
  21. last — final
  22. last — finally
  23. trunk — of a tree
  24. wind — moving air

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