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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: march · trunk · cold · lie · saw · clip · file · dip

  1. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  7. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  8. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. She's very handy with a ________________.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  17. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  18. He works in a ________________ mill.
  19. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  20. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  21. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  22. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  23. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  24. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. march — the month
  3. march — the month
  4. clip — a video
  5. clip — to cut
  6. lie — to recline
  7. lie — an untruth
  8. lie — an untruth
  9. cold — an illness
  10. cold — not warm
  11. march — music
  12. file — a line of people
  13. file — a document
  14. saw — the tool
  15. clip — for paper
  16. saw — past of 'see'
  17. dip — to sink
  18. saw — the tool
  19. trunk — of an elephant
  20. trunk — of a car
  21. file — a tool
  22. dip — a sauce
  23. dip — to dunk
  24. trunk — of a tree

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