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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 one o'clock ________________.
  2. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  3. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  4. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  5. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  8. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  9. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  10. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  11. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  12. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  15. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  18. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  19. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  20. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — exactly
  2. snap — to snap out of it
  3. march — music
  4. straw — to clutch at straws
  5. file — a tool
  6. chest — of your body
  7. pit — a fruit stone
  8. bass — low music
  9. march — the month
  10. snap — to speak sharply
  11. sharp — with an edge
  12. sharp — clever
  13. file — a line of people
  14. pit — a hole
  15. pit — in a race
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. bass — the instrument
  18. bass — the fish
  19. chest — a box
  20. straw — dry grass
  21. file — a document
  22. snap — to click
  23. chest — of your body
  24. march — the month

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