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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  4. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  7. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  8. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. My father caught me by the ________________.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. I'll be taking the ________________.
  13. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  14. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  23. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  24. He took the fish out of the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. kid — to tease
  3. tube — in a tire
  4. arm — a part of something
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. straw — dry grass
  7. arm — part of the body
  8. net — after costs
  9. chest — of your body
  10. arm — part of the body
  11. kid — child
  12. tube — the underground
  13. band — a ring
  14. band — a music group
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. net — in sport
  18. cold — not warm
  19. tube — a container
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. chest — a box
  22. chest — of your body
  23. band — a rubber band
  24. net — for catching

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