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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. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  6. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  7. My father caught me by the ________________.
  8. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  9. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  10. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  11. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  12. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  16. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  17. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  18. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  22. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  23. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  24. Check the label for the sugar ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — a video
  2. hand — help
  3. content — happy
  4. chest — of your body
  5. chest — of your body
  6. arm — part of the body
  7. arm — part of the body
  8. trunk — of a car
  9. content — videos and posts
  10. snap — to click
  11. wave — a sudden rise
  12. trunk — of an elephant
  13. chest — a box
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. hand — in cards
  16. wave — of the sea
  17. arm — a part of something
  18. wave — with your hand
  19. clip — for paper
  20. clip — to cut
  21. snap — to snap out of it
  22. trunk — of a tree
  23. snap — to speak sharply
  24. content — the amount

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