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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: hand · land · perch · chest · trunk · file · roll · prune

  1. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  6. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  9. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  10. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  15. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. We're on a ________________ here.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  23. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  24. A ________________ is just a dried plum.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. land — to come down
  3. trunk — of an elephant
  4. chest — of your body
  5. trunk — of a car
  6. perch — for a bird
  7. chest — of your body
  8. roll — a cake
  9. perch — for a bird
  10. roll — a list
  11. hand — in cards
  12. land — ground
  13. file — a tool
  14. trunk — of a tree
  15. prune — to trim
  16. chest — a box
  17. file — a line of people
  18. roll — on a roll
  19. land — a country
  20. perch — the fish
  21. file — a document
  22. hand — help
  23. hand — part of the body
  24. prune — the fruit

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