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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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  4. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  5. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  6. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  9. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. I can't ________________ this cold.
  13. Have you met the new head ________________?
  14. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  18. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  19. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  20. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  21. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  22. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  23. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  24. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. degree — from a university
  3. coach — pulled by horses
  4. degree — temperature
  5. chip — in a computer
  6. file — a document
  7. file — a line of people
  8. wind — moving air
  9. snap — to speak sharply
  10. file — a tool
  11. degree — an amount
  12. stand — to bear
  13. coach — a trainer
  14. snap — to snap out of it
  15. wind — moving air
  16. chest — of your body
  17. chip — to eat
  18. coach — a trainer
  19. chip — for betting
  20. chest — a box
  21. stand — for spectators
  22. stand — on your feet
  23. wind — to turn a key
  24. chest — of your body

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