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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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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 · clip · fall · bat · tear · fine · wound · net

  1. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  4. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  5. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  17. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  18. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  21. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  22. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  23. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. clip — a video
  3. fall — to drop
  4. trunk — of a car
  5. fall — to drop
  6. clip — for paper
  7. tear — from crying
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. net — in sport
  10. tear — to rip
  11. wound — an injury
  12. wound — an injury
  13. clip — to cut
  14. tear — from crying
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. net — for catching
  17. fine — high quality
  18. fall — the season
  19. bat — the animal
  20. trunk — of an elephant
  21. trunk — of a tree
  22. fine — all right
  23. fine — a penalty
  24. wound — past of 'wind'

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