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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  7. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  8. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  14. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. That was ________________ to happen.
  17. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  20. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. spring — of water
  3. bound — tied together
  4. field — for sport
  5. chest — a box
  6. toast — bread
  7. shower — rain
  8. toast — the most admired
  9. shower — to wash
  10. clip — to cut
  11. spring — a coil
  12. field — farmland
  13. rule — a law
  14. bound — obliged
  15. clip — a video
  16. bound — certain
  17. toast — a drink to someone
  18. spring — the season
  19. chest — of your body
  20. rule — to rule out
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. field — a subject
  23. rule — government
  24. clip — for paper

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