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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. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  4. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  5. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  8. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  9. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  10. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  11. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  12. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  13. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  14. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  15. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  16. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. cap — a hat
  2. chest — of your body
  3. cap — a lid
  4. fall — the season
  5. tear — to rip
  6. chest — of your body
  7. stem — a stem cell
  8. row — a quarrel
  9. pass — to spend time
  10. stem — of a plant
  11. pass — to succeed
  12. pass — a permit
  13. stem — to come from
  14. row — a line
  15. fall — to drop
  16. row — to paddle
  17. tear — from crying
  18. tear — from crying
  19. cap — of ice
  20. clip — for paper
  21. fall — to drop
  22. clip — to cut
  23. clip — a video
  24. chest — a box

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