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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. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  2. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  3. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  4. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  7. It's one o'clock ________________.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  10. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  11. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  17. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. race — humankind
  2. race — the arms race
  3. hand — in cards
  4. snap — to snap out of it
  5. chest — of your body
  6. patient — a sick person
  7. sharp — exactly
  8. clip — for paper
  9. race — a contest
  10. snap — to speak sharply
  11. hand — part of the body
  12. clip — a video
  13. chest — a box
  14. hand — help
  15. chest — of your body
  16. sharp — with an edge
  17. snap — to click
  18. cold — not warm
  19. cold — an illness
  20. patient — calm and waiting
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. sharp — clever
  23. clip — to cut
  24. patient — a sick person

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